It technically works, but not really...

Question about the task

Under discussion

I almost have it, but not quite. With the example input it works, printing 4 as the lowest and 5 as the next smallest (I have it printing both for testing) but when I added a 3 at the end of the list of numbers (but before the enter breaks the loop) and it correctly updates the lowest number to 3, but still counts the next lowest as 5. I assume that's because it can't compare the new number to numbers entered earlier, I'd like to be able to cycle through the inputs twice to double check them all, but I can't think of a way to do that without using a list/array which hasn't been covered yet, so I'd like to find a way to do that without them.

In this task, you need to:

Read integers from the keyboard until something else is entered, such as a string or a character.
At least two numbers must be entered. If less than two integers are entered, then terminate the program with an error. You don't need to handle this situation.
Display the second smallest integer entered from the keyboard. If several such numbers are entered, you must display any of them.
There may also be several minimum numbers.

Example input:

8

4 // Minimum number

7

4 // Minimum number

5 // Second smallest number

9

5 // Second smallest number

exit

Example output:
5

Requirements:

The program should read numbers from the keyboard.
The program should display a number on the screen.
The program should display the second smallest integer entered.
If several second smallest numbers are entered, then you need to display any one of them.
You need to read data from the keyboard in a while loop.

package en.codegym.task.pro.task04.task0410; import java.util.Scanner; /* Second smallest number entered */ public class Solution { public static void main(String[] args) { //write your code here Scanner console = new Scanner(System.in); int min = Integer.MAX_VALUE; int nextSmallest = Integer.MAX_VALUE; int counter = 0; while (counter < 3) { while (console.hasNextInt()) { int x = console.nextInt(); if ((x <= min) && (x <= nextSmallest)) { min = x; } else if ((x > min) && (x < nextSmallest)) { nextSmallest = x; } counter++; } } System.out.println(min); System.out.println(nextSmallest); } }

Comments (3)

Popular
New
Old

You must be signed in to leave a comment

Matthew Riggs

Level 6 , United States of America, United States

21 December 2023, 04:50

I finally figured it out, but I'd still love to hear any suggestions for how to do it, chances are someone had a different solution that I can learn from.

Guadalupe Gagnon

Level 37 , Tampa, United States

21 December 2023, 14:40

You could enter all the integers into a TreeSet then output the second in the set. The only thing would be making sure you throw an Error (the task says "Error" but maybe Exception is acceptable) if less than 2 numbers are entered. The conditions don't specify what to if only one number is entered but multiple times. Such as if I entered 5, 5, 5, 5? Should it output 5 or should it end in an error because 5 in the minimum but there is not second smallest? You would have to "verify debug" that situation which means do it one way and try to verify and if it fails do it the other way.

Guadalupe Gagnon

Level 37 , Tampa, United States

21 December 2023, 14:58

Or if you don't want to use Sets, Lists, Arrays etc for whatever reason; this is what I would do: Three ints for the min, second, and the enteredInt. First step set min to the first user input. Then set enteredInt to next user input. See if it is less than min, if so set second to min and then min to enteredInt. if false then set second to the enteredInt. An error should be thrown if numbers are not entered here. Then start the main loop as long as numbers are being entered: - set enteredInt to the next valid input - check if enteredInt is equal to min, if so continue the loop to the next cycle - else check if enteredInt is less than min if so set second to min and min to the enteredInput - else check if min is equal to second and set second to enteredInt. - else check if enteredInt is less than second and set second to enteredInt output second This is assuming something should be output as long as 2 numbers are entered. If it fails then loop the first step until min and second are not the same. I'll message this solution to you with an example of the "Debug" mode I started using during this course to help.