Lab: Developer Documentation

This lab is broken into 3 group assignments. The first will have you use the ArrayList again. Next, you'll practice asking and answering questions that others will be able to understand. Finally, you'll learn a new class in Java and developer documentation to teach yourself the StringBuilder!

1. Properly Asking for Help (30 minutes)

• Register for both a GAQA and Stack Overflow account
• Fill out your Stack Overflow profile details with as much detail as possible
• In a group, use developer documentation to research the ArrayList class
• Learn how to add, find, and remove elements within an ArrayList; if you don't get stuck, try iterating through items of the list or a different data collection class
• The first time you run into a problem, make your way to GAQA
• Review the contents of Stack Overflow's 'How do I ask a good question?'
• Come up with a question to help you answer the problem you and your group has run into and review your group's question to verify it's as clear as possible
• Post your question to GAQA!
• Your instructional staff will provide feedback to your question.

2. Stack Overflow (10 minutes)

In the past two weeks, you have likely run into a problem:

• Brainstorm common problems or errors that you and your group mates have encountered so far in class
• Research them on Stack Overflow
• Upvote answers and comments that you find helpful or insightful

3. StringBuilder

• it is time for you to learn something new again!
• Research the StringBuilder class and use it to create a String
• StringBuilder is designed to build strings; instead of having to concatenate by hand, you can use this instead
• When you run into a problem, you should use documentation to aid you!
• If you find that you have a unique question, you should post it!
• Otherwise feel free to comment and upvote answers that you find helpful!
• Bonus: Build a script that uses StringBuilder! Push it to GitHub!