I made a battleship game and its gone well except for checking if the ship is sunk... Any help? Here's what I have so far, thanks in advance.

public class BattleShip {
    private static final int dimensions = 10;
    private String[][] board = new String[dimensions][dimensions];
    private String[][] piecesBoard = new String[dimensions][dimensions];
    public BattleShip() 
    {
         createBoard();
         initialize();
         directions();
         showBoard();
         play();         
    }

    public void play() {
         Scanner in;
         in = new Scanner(System.in);
         int row; 
         int column;
         int guess = 0;
         int hit = 0;
         do {
              System.out.println("Please input row");
              row = Integer.parseInt(in.nextLine());
              System.out.println("Please input column");
              column = Integer.parseInt(in.nextLine());
              if(((row >= 0 && row < dimensions) && (column >= 0 && column < dimensions)) && (board[row][column].equals("#"))) { 
                if(piecesBoard[row][column].equals("O")){
                     System.out.println("HIT!");
                     board[row][column] = "%";
                     hit++;
                     showBoard();
                }
                else if(piecesBoard[row][column].equals("#")) {
                     System.out.println("MISS!");
                     board[row][column] = "X";
                     showBoard();
                }
                guess++;
              }

              else {
                   if(row == 50 && column == 50) {
                        displayPiecesBoard();
                   }
                   else {
                        System.out.println("Invalid Input");
                   }
              }

         }while(hit != 18);

         System.out.println("Thanks for playing!");
         System.out.println("Number of guess: " + guess);
    }

    public void directions() {
         System.out.println("The name of the game is Battleship.  The goal is to");
         System.out.println("Guess and find ships to sink them.");
         System.out.println("You will be asked to give a column and row combination to guess.");
         System.out.println("The first number will be the column");
         System.out.println("and the second number will be the row.");
         System.out.println("If you guess a hit you will see this message: HIT!");
         System.out.println("If you guess a miss you will see this message: MISS!");
         System.out.println("If you guess a sink you will see this message: HIT AND SUNK!");
         System.out.println("To see the answer board, type in 50, 50 as your two numbers");
         System.out.println("# = Not guess, O = hit, X = miss");
    }

    public void createBoard(){
         for (int column = 0; column < dimensions; column++) {
             for (int row = 0; row < dimensions; row++) {
                 board[row][column] = "#";
                 piecesBoard[row][column] = "#";
             }
         }
    }

    public void showBoard() {
         for (int column = 0; column < dimensions; column++) {
             System.out.print(column);
              for (int row = 0; row < dimensions; row++) {
                  System.out.print(board[row][column]);
                  System.out.print(" ");
              }
              System.out.println();
          } 
    }

    public void displayPiecesBoard() {
         for (int column=0; column<dimensions; column++) {
              for (int row = 0; row < dimensions; row++) {
                  System.out.print(piecesBoard[row][column]);
                  System.out.print(" ");
              }
              System.out.println();
          } 
    }

    /**This class randomizes the ships and sets them on the board according 
     * to direction and whether or not there is room for that ship to set there. 
     * Based on the size of the ship you'll know which ship you're going 
     * to be adding coordinates too. For direction of ship, (North/South, 
     * East/West): 0 = up, 1 = right, 2 = down, 3 = left.
     */

    public void initialize(){
         Random r = new Random();
         Random d = new Random();

         for(int places = 5; places > 0; places--) 
         {
             int ships = places;
             if (places == 2 || places == 1) 
             {
                  ships = places++;
             }
             boolean done = false;
             do{ 

                  int column = r.nextInt(dimensions);
                  int row = r.nextInt(dimensions);
                  int temporaryRow = row;
                  int temporaryColumn = column;
                  int direction = d.nextInt(4);
                  int checkFree = 0; 


                  if(direction == 0) 
                  {
                     if(row - ships >= 0) 
                     {
                       for(int checking = ships; checking>0; checking--)
                       {
                            if(piecesBoard[temporaryRow][column].equals("#")) 
                            {
                                 checkFree++;
                                 temporaryRow--;
                            }
                       }
                       if(checkFree == ships) 
                       {
                            temporaryRow = row;
                            for (int place = ships; place >0; place--)
                            {
                                 piecesBoard[temporaryRow][column] = "O";
                                 temporaryRow--;
                            }
                            done = true;
                       }
                     }
                  }

                  if(direction == 1) 
                  {
                       if(column + ships < dimensions) 
                       {
                         for(int checking = ships; checking>0; checking--)
                         {
                              if(piecesBoard[row][temporaryColumn].equals("#")) 
                              {
                                   checkFree++;
                                   temporaryColumn++;
                              }
                         }
                         if(checkFree == ships) 
                         {
                              temporaryColumn = column;
                              for (int place = ships; place >0; place--)
                              {
                                   piecesBoard[row][temporaryColumn] = "O";
                                   temporaryColumn++;
                              }
                              done = true;
                         }
                       }
                    }


                  if(direction == 2) 
                  {
                       if(row + ships < dimensions) 
                       {
                         for(int checking = ships; checking > 0; checking--)
                         {
                              if(piecesBoard[temporaryRow][column].equals("#")) 
                              {
                                   checkFree++;
                                   temporaryRow++;
                              }
                         }
                         if(checkFree == ships) 
                         {
                              temporaryRow = row;
                              for (int place = ships; place > 0; place--)
                              {
                                   piecesBoard[temporaryRow][column] = "O";
                                   temporaryRow++;
                              }
                              done = true;
                         }
                       }
                    }


                  if(direction == 3) 
                  {
                       if(column - ships >= 0) 
                       {
                         for(int checking = ships; checking > 0; checking--)
                         {
                              if(piecesBoard[row][temporaryColumn].equals("#")) 
                              {
                                   checkFree++;
                                   temporaryColumn--;
                              }
                         }
                         if(checkFree == ships) 
                         {
                              temporaryColumn = column;
                              for (int place = ships; place >0; place--)
                              {
                                   piecesBoard[row][temporaryColumn] = "O";
                                   temporaryColumn--;
                              }
                              done = true;
                         }
                       }
                    }

            }

            while(!done);

         }

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
         BattleShip BattleShip = new BattleShip();
    }
}

I guess that if coordinate (3,4) is on a ship, then piecesBoard[3][4] is 'O'. Otherwise it is '#' (i.e. '#' represents water)? Is that correct? Than later, I type in (3,4) and piecesBoard[3][4] is 'O', then board[3][4] is turned into a '%' and I have scored a hit? Is that it?

If so, then when initializing, everything needs to start out as water (i.e. piecesBoard[i][j] must equal '#' for all (i,j) coordinates). I am not seeing that anywhere in your code. I would display piecesBoard[][] after initialization and make sure it looks right.

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