Part 3 mini-project: Character Sheet

This project pulls together all of Part 3: variables, strings, numbers, and keyboard input.

It asks the user a few questions about their game character, then prints a formatted character sheet with every answer plus one value the program works out itself.

What to build

A program that, when run:

  1. Prompts the user for five pieces of information about a character:

    • Name (text)
    • Class (text, e.g. "Warrior", "Mage", "Rogue")
    • Level (whole number)
    • HP (whole number — hit points)
    • MP (whole number — magic points)

  2. Computes a value called Power, using this formula:

     power := hp + mp*2 + level*10

  3. Prints a character sheet in roughly this shape:

     +--------------------------------------+
 | CHARACTER SHEET                      |
 +--------------------------------------+
 | Name : Keiko
 | Class: Mage
 | Level: 7
 | HP   : 95
 | MP   : 60
 | Power: 285
 +--------------------------------------+

The box widths do not have to match exactly. What matters is that every value appears with a label, and the Power line shows the computed value.

Files

The starter and finished versions are in projects/02-character-sheet/:

  • starter.go — the name prompt done for you, and the rest laid out with TODO comments. Finish it so the sheet prints at the end. It runs as it is: it asks for a name and prints one placeholder line, which you replace.
  • finished.go — a working version. Look at it after trying yours.

Run with:

go run projects/02-character-sheet/starter.go

Hints

  • Each prompt is a fmt.Print("Label: ") followed by a read. The first read declares text with :=, and later reads reuse it with =.
  • Trim every line with strings.TrimSpace. Convert any value you will do maths on with strconv.Atoi, and add "strconv" to the imports.
  • Use fmt.Printf like fmt.Printf("| Name : %s\n", name) for the labelled lines — cleaner than joining strings with +.
  • For the borders, strings.Repeat("-", 38) or similar saves you typing dashes by hand.

What you cannot use yet

  • if to validate input. If the user types abc for HP, the program treats it as 0 and prints a lower Power. That is fine for now.
  • Loops. Write every prompt out explicitly.
  • Your own functions. Only main and the library functions you have seen are needed.

Done?

If the sheet shows every value with a label and the Power line is the correct sum, you are done. Move on to Chapter 16 — if, else and switch, where your programs start making decisions.