[Javascript] wrox code question

Mon Jul 9 14:29:45 CDT 2001

Sorry if this has been beaten up before, but I am working through the Wrox Beginning Javascript book, and have one thing that I dont understand (well, more than one thing, but only one question here)

the code, from their site, is
-------------------------------------------------

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Wrox Online Trivia Quiz</TITLE>

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript>

var questionNumber;

function answerCorrect(questionNumber, answer)
{
   // declare a variable to hold return value
   var correct = false;

   // if answer provided is same as correct answer then correct variable is true
   if (answer == answers[questionNumber])
      correct = true;

   // return whether the answer was correct (true or false)
   return correct;
}
function getQuestion()
{
   questionNumber = Math.floor(Math.random() * (questions.length));
   var questionHTML = "<P>" + questions[questionNumber][0] + "</P>";
   var questionLength = questions[questionNumber].length;
   var questionChoice;

   for (questionChoice = 1;questionChoice < questionLength;questionChoice++)
   {
      questionHTML = questionHTML + "<INPUT TYPE=radio NAME=radQuestionChoice"
      if (questionChoice == 1)
      {
         questionHTML = questionHTML + " CHECKED";
      }
      questionHTML = questionHTML + ">";
      questionHTML = questionHTML + questions[questionNumber][questionChoice];
      questionHTML = questionHTML + "<BR>";
   }

   document.QuestionForm.txtQNumber.value = questionNumber + 1;
   return questionHTML;
}

function buttonCheckQ_onclick() 
{
   var answer = 0;

   while (document.QuestionForm.radQuestionChoice[answer].checked != true)   
   {
      answer++;
   }

   answer = String.fromCharCode(65 + answer);

   if (answerCorrect(questionNumber,answer) == true)
   {
      alert("You got it right");
   }
   else
   {
      alert("You got it wrong");
   }

   window.location.reload();
}

</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>

<BODY>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript>

// Questions variable will holds questions
var questions = new Array();
var answers = new Array();

// define question 1 
questions[0] = new Array();

// the question
questions[0][0] = "The Beatles were";

// first choice
questions[0][1] = "A sixties rock group from Liverpool";

// second choice
questions[0][2] = "Four musically gifted insects";

// third choice
questions[0][3] = "I don't know - can I have the questions on Baseball please";

// assign answer for question 1 
answers[0] = "A";

// define question 2
questions[1] = new Array();
questions[1][0] = "Homer Simpson's favorite food is";
questions[1][1] = "Fresh salad";
questions[1][2] = "Doughnuts";
questions[1][3] = "Bread and water";
questions[1][4] = "Apples";

// assign answer for question 2
answers[1] = "B";

// define question 3
questions[2] = new Array();
questions[2][0] = "Lisa Simpson plays which musical instrument";
questions[2][1] = "Clarinet";
questions[2][2] = "Oboe";
questions[2][3] = "Saxophone";
questions[2][4] = "Tubular Bells"; 

// assign answer for question 3 
answers[2] = "C";

</SCRIPT>

<FORM NAME="QuestionForm">

Question
<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME=txtQNumber SIZE=1>

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript>
   document.write(getQuestion());
</SCRIPT>

<INPUT TYPE="button" VALUE="Check Question" NAME=buttonCheckQ 
   onclick="return buttonCheckQ_onclick()">
</FORM>

</BODY>
</HTML>
---------------------------
this is from chapter 6, if anyone has the book and wants to read about the intent of the page.

My question is:  the number that appears in the text box at the top of the page is correct the first time the page is loaded, but no matter how many times I reload the number stays the same.  Different questions from the question array do appear, and an alert shows that the value of questionNumber does change at random. 
Q:  why does the indicated number NOT change when the page is refreshed.

This happens in IE 4 and 5.5, have not tried on a Netscape machine.

Thanks, looking forward to a lot of learning from the list, hoping to contribute something useful someday
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