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In this article, we have developed a command line tool to test typing speed for the user. We have implemented this in Java Programming Language. This is a strong addition to a SDE portfolio.

We'll discuss:

Introduction

Features

Basic Idea of Implementation

TypingTest Class

Constructor

typeFullText()

typeInOneMinute()

displayResult()

TimerThread inner class

Main Class

Example

Use of Multithreading

Conclusion

Introduction

Typing speed is an essential skill in the digital world we live in today. Whether you're a student, a professional, or just someone who spends a lot of time typing, it's important to have a good typing speed and accuracy. In this blog, we'll explore how to create a Java console application that measures typing speed and accuracy.

The application we'll build will have two modes - one where you type the full text and another where you type as much as you can in one minute. The code will provide the typing speed in characters per second and accuracy in percentage. This is a great way to track your progress and improve your typing skills over time. Let's get started!

Features

The features of this code are:

Two modes of testing: The code provides two modes of testing, one is typing the full text and the other is typing the text in one minute.
Accuracy calculation: The code calculates the accuracy of typing by comparing the input text with the given text.
Typing speed calculation: The code calculates the typing speed by dividing the number of characters typed by the time taken to type the text.
User-friendly interface: The code provides a user-friendly interface where the user can select the mode of testing and start the test.
Thread timer: The code uses multithreading to implement the timer for the one-minute typing test. The timer is implemented as a separate thread which runs alongside the main thread and terminates the test once the time is up.
Result display: The code displays the typing speed and accuracy of the test on the console.
Exception handling: The code provides basic exception handling for the InterruptedException that can be thrown by the timer thread.

Basic Idea of Implementation

The design strategy for this code is to create a TypingTest class that allows users to perform a typing test with either full text or one minute modes. The flow of the code is as follows:

Initialize the TypingTest class with a string for the text to be typed and an integer for the mode of the test.
Call the startTest() method to start the test.
If the mode is set to 1, the typeFullText() method is called to type the full text and if the mode is set to 2, the typeInOneMinute() method is called to type the text in one minute
According to the method choosen, method prompts the user to start typing, records the start time, and displays the text to be typed.
The code then compares each character of the user's input with the corresponding character in the text to be typed, counting the number of correctly typed characters.
The accuracy is calculated as a percentage of the number of correct characters, and the typing speed is calculated as the number of characters typed per second.
The results are then displayed to the user.

TypingText Class

// Import the Scanner class to allow user input
import java.util.Scanner;

// Class for the typing test
class TypingTest {
    // String for the text to be typed
    private String text;
    // Integer for the mode of the test (full text or one minute)
    private int mode;
    // Double for the user's typing speed (characters per second)
    private double typingSpeed;
    // Integer for the user's accuracy (percent)
    private int accuracy;

    // Constructor for the TypingTest class
    public TypingTest(String text, int mode) {
        // Set the text to be typed to the passed argument
        this.text = text;
        // Set the mode of the test to the passed argument
        this.mode = mode;
    }

    // Method to start the test
    public void startTest() {
        // If the mode is set to full text, run the typeFullText method
        if (mode == 1) {
            typeFullText();
            // If the mode is set to one minute, run the typeInOneMinute method
        } else {
            typeInOneMinute();
        }
    }

    // Method for typing the full text
    private void typeFullText() {
	    // code is written below
    }

    private void typeInOneMinute() {
        // code is written below
    }

    private void displayResult() {
        // code is written below
    }

    class TimerThread extends Thread {
        // code is written below
    }
}

The TypingTest class is the main class of the typing speed test application. It contains the logic for calculating the typing speed and accuracy of the user. The class has three private variables, text, mode, typingSpeed and accuracy. These variables store the text that the user has to type, the mode in which the user wants to perform the test (full text or one-minute test), the typing speed of the user, and the accuracy of the user respectively.

Constructor : The class has a constructor which takes two arguments, the text and the mode. This constructor sets the text and mode variables. The class also has a startTest() method, which is called from the main method to start the test. This method calls either typeFullText() or typeInOneMinute() method depending on the value of the mode variable.

    // Method for typing the full text
    private void typeFullText() {
        // Create a Scanner object to allow user input
        Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
        // Prompt the user to start typing
        System.out.println("Start typing the following text:\n");
        // Record the start time
        long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
        // Display the text to be typed
        System.out.println(text + "\n");
        // String to store the user's input
        String input;
        // Check if the user has provided input
        if (sc.hasNextLine()) {
            // Store the user's input in the input variable
            input = sc.nextLine();
        } else {
            // If no input was provided, print a message and return
            System.out.println("No input provided.");
            sc.close();
            return;
        }
        // Record the end time
        long end = System.currentTimeMillis();

        // Calculate the elapsed time in seconds
        long elapsedTime = (end - start) / 1000;

        // Integer to store the number of correctly typed characters
        int correct = 0;
        // Loop through the text to be typed
        for (int i = 0; i < text.length(); i++) {
            // If the current character in the text is the same as the user's input
            // and the user's input is not shorter than the text
            if (i < input.length() && input.charAt(i) == text.charAt(i)) {
                // Increment the correct count
                correct++;
            }
        }
        // Calculate the accuracy as a percentage of correct characters
        accuracy = (int)((double) correct / input.length() * 100);
        // Calculate the typing speed in characters per second
        typingSpeed = (int)((double) correct / elapsedTime);

        // Close the Scanner object
        sc.close();
        // Display the results
        displayResult();
    }

typeFullText() : The typeFullText() method is called when the user wants to type the full text. This method displays the text that the user has to type and starts the timer. It then takes input from the user and stops the timer. It then calculates the accuracy and typing speed of the user and displays the result. The accuracy is calculated by comparing the characters typed by the user with the characters in the text. The typing speed is calculated by dividing the number of correct characters typed by the user by the time taken to type the text.

private void typeInOneMinute() {
        // Create a Scanner object to read user input
        Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
        System.out.println("Start typing the following text:\n");
        System.out.println(text + "\n");

        // Create a TimerThread object to handle the timer for one minute
        TimerThread timerThread = new TimerThread();
        // Start the timer thread
        timerThread.start();

        // Use a StringBuilder to collect user input
        StringBuilder inputBuilder = new StringBuilder();
        // Keep looping until the timer thread finishes
        while (timerThread.isAlive()) {
            if (sc.hasNextLine()) {
                // Add the user input to the StringBuilder
                inputBuilder.append(sc.nextLine());
            }
        }
        // Close the Scanner object
        sc.close();

        // Convert the StringBuilder to a string
        String input = inputBuilder.toString();

        // Calculate the number of correct characters typed by the user
        int correct = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < text.length(); i++) {
            if (i < input.length() && input.charAt(i) == text.charAt(i)) {
                correct++;
            }
        }
        // Calculate the accuracy as a percentage
        accuracy = (int)((double) correct / input.length() * 100);
        // Calculate the typing speed in characters per second
        typingSpeed = (double) correct / 60;

        // Display the results
        displayResult();
        // Exit the system
        System.exit(0);
    }

typeInOneMinute() : The typeInOneMinute() method is called when the user wants to type in one minute. This method displays the text that the user has to type and starts a timer thread. The timer thread counts for 60 seconds and then stops. The user can type the text while the timer is running. After the timer stops, the application calculates the accuracy and typing speed of the user and displays the result. The accuracy is calculated by comparing the characters typed by the user with the characters in the text. The typing speed is calculated by dividing the number of correct characters typed by the user by 60 seconds.

private void displayResult() {
        // This method is used to display the results of the typing test, including
        // typing speed and accuracy.
        System.out.println("Typing Speed: " + typingSpeed + " characters per second");
        System.out.println("Accuracy: " + accuracy + "%");
    }

displayResult() : The displayResult() method is used to display the typing speed and accuracy of the user. The typing speed is displayed in characters per second, and the accuracy is displayed in percentage.

class TimerThread extends Thread {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            // This inner class is used to implement a timer thread that runs for 60 seconds and stops the typing test.
            try {
                sleep(60000);
                System.out.println("\n\nTime is up!\n");

            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                // Thread interrupted, do nothing
            }
        }
    }

TimerThread : The TimerThread class is an inner class of the TypingTest class. This class extends the Thread class and overrides the run() method. The run() method contains the logic to count for 60 seconds and then display a message indicating that the time is up.

Main Class

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Main method is the entry point of the program and contains the implementation
        // of the menu and starts the typing test.
        Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
		
		// text is store in Text.java file
        String text = Text.text;

        System.out.println("Select mode:");
        System.out.println("1. Type full text");
        System.out.println("2. Type in one minute");
        int mode = sc.nextInt();

        TypingTest test = new TypingTest(text, mode);
        test.startTest();
        sc.close();
    }
}

In this method, we start by creating a Scanner object to get the input from the user. The text to be typed by the user is defined in the Text.text variable. The user is prompted to select the mode of the typing test. They can either type the full text or type for one minute. The selected mode is stored in the mode variable.

Next, we create an object of the TypingTest class by passing the text and mode as arguments. Finally, we start the typing test by calling the startTest method on the TypingTest object. After the typing test is complete, we close the Scanner object to release the system resources.

Example

Let's take a look at the result of the code:

Use of Multithreading

The use of multithreading in the code is to implement the timer feature in the typeinOneMinute mode of the TypingTest. The TimerThread class extends the java.lang.Thread class and runs as a separate thread. When the user starts the test, a new instance of TimerThread is created and its start() method is called, which starts the timer. The timer runs for 60 seconds and after that, it prints a message saying "Time is up!". During this time, the user can type the given text in the console. The input entered by the user is recorded, and when the timer finishes, the typing speed and accuracy are calculated and displayed to the user.

By using multithreading, the timer and the user input are running concurrently, and the timer does not block the input, so the user can continue typing even if the timer is still running. This makes the typing test more interactive and user-friendly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, typing speed is an essential skill in today's digital world, and being able to measure it is equally important. The above Java console application provides an easy and straightforward way to measure your typing speed and accuracy.

In this article at OpenGenus, we have explained the code step by step and the different parts of the code in detail. We hope that this blog has provided you with all the information you need to start using this application and improving your typing skills.