Tukukkk

I've created a recursive method to return a single, randomly-selected, String-value, that represents a specific color. It chooses this color from one, or several, "color categories", such as "blue", or "yellow".

Currently calling the method requires at least three arguments.

I feel like this method has too many parameters, and I would like to reduce them.

I know I could do this iteratively, which I am fine with, but that seems like it would mean I would have get rid of the switch-case (because of the break statements) and do a bunch of "else-if" statements, which I'd like to avoid.

Optimally, I'd like to be able to do the same thing with just the String... colorCategory parameters.

public class MCVE {



private static String pupilColorPoss = {

      "yellow", "chartreuse", "emerald", "cyan", "blue", "indigo",

      "purple", "violet", "magenta", "scarlet", "red", "vermilion",

      "orange", "golden", "brown", "chestnut", "auburn", "white",

      "black"};



public static void main(String args) {

   HashSet<String> colors = new HashSet<>();

   String printValue = randomizePupilColor(colors, 2, "blue", "yellow", "green");

   System.out.println(printValue);

}



/**

 * Uses recursion to return a String of a color from PupilColorPoss matching

 * one of the String color-category arguments given.

 *

 * String color-category arguments can be:

 *      yellow, green, blue, purple, red,

 *      orange, brown, black, white

 *

 * @param colors Empty HashSet that colors are added to.

 * @param index Should initially be the amount of String args minus 1.

 * @param colorCategory The color categories to pick from

 * @return String

 */

private static String randomizePupilColor(HashSet<String> colors, int index,

                                          String... colorCategory) {

   // add all the colors from a certain category to the HashSet colors

   switch (colorCategory[index]) {

      case "yellow":

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[0]); // yellow

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[1]); // chartreuse

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[12]); // golden

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[13]); // orange

         break;

      case "green":

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[1]); // chartreuse

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[2]); // emerald

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[3]); // cyan

         break;

      case "blue":

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[3]); // cyan

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[4]); // blue

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[5]); // indigo

         break;

      case "purple":

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[5]); // indigo

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[6]); // purple

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[7]); // violet

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[8]); // magenta

         break;

      case "red":

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[8]); // magenta

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[9]); // scarlet

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[10]); // red

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[11]); // vermilion

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[16]); // auburn

         break;

      case "orange":

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[11]); // vermilion

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[12]); // orange

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[13]); // golden

         break;

      case "brown":

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[14]); // brown

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[15]); // chestnut

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[16]); // auburn

         break;

      case "black":

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[18]); // black

         break;

      case "white":

         colors.add(pupilColorPoss[17]); // white

         break;

      default:

         throw new IllegalArgumentException(

               colorCategory[index] + " is not valid");

   }



   // recursion stop-case

   if(index == 0) {

      int stop = ThreadLocalRandom.current().nextInt(0, colors.size());

      Iterator<String> iter = colors.iterator();



      for(int i = 0; i < stop; i++)

         iter.next();



      return iter.next();

   }



   return randomizePupilColor(colors, index - 1, colorCategory);

}

}