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Question about the task

Shortest or longest

Java Syntax, Level 7, Lesson 6

Resolved

My output seems correct to me but the 3rd and 4th requirements are not satisfied.

1. Create a list of strings.
2. Add 10 strings from the keyboard.
3. Find out which string occurs earlier in the list: the shortest or the longest.
If several strings are shortest or longest, then consider the very first such string encountered.
4. Display the string described in Step 3. One string should be displayed.

Requirements:

Declare a string list variable and immediately initialize it.
The program should read 10 strings from the keyboard and add them to the list.
The program should display the shortest string if it comes before the longest.
The program should display the longest string if it comes before the shortest.

package com.codegym.task.task07.task0712; import java.io.BufferedReader; import java.io.IOException; import java.io.InputStreamReader; import java.util.ArrayList; /* Shortest or longest */ public class Solution { public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<>(); for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++){ list.add(reader.readLine()); } int longest = list.get(0).length(); int shortest = list.get(0).length(); int index = 0; for (int i = 1; i < list.size(); i ++) { if (longest < list.get(i).length()) { System.out.println(list.get(index)); break; } else if (shortest > list.get(i).length()) { System.out.println(list.get(index)); break; } else index++; } } }

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Guadalupe Gagnon

Level 37 , Tampa, United States

9 December 2019, 21:43

useful

I try to notate code so that I, and anyone reading it, knows what I am trying to accomplish with the code. I would recommend that you do this too. Here is what i come up with for this code:

public class Solution {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
        ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<>();

        // read words from console
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++){
            list.add(reader.readLine());
        }
        // sets initial value of longest and shortest to length of first entered word
        int longest = list.get(0).length();
        int shortest = list.get(0).length();
        int index = 0; // unsure what this is supposed to be for??

        //loops through the rest of entered words starting at second
        for (int i = 1; i < list.size(); i ++) {
            // if word at index i is greater than variable longest
            if (longest < list.get(i).length()) {
                // output word at index (which is 1 word back)
                System.out.println(list.get(index));
                break; // end loop
            }
            // else check if word at index i is less than variable shortest
            else if (shortest > list.get(i).length()) {
                // output word at index (which is 1 word back)
                System.out.println(list.get(index));
                break; // end loop
            }
            else // else increase index by 1
                index++;
        }
    }
}

Problems: #1 code outputs 1 word prior current index (ouputs index instead of i) #2 code never finds the actual shortest and longest words. It outputs the occurring word that is less than or greater than the first word, which most likely will always be found at index 1 (and output index 0 because of point #1).

Jim_Gk

Level 1 , Sofia, Bulgaria

Expert

9 December 2019, 23:43

Thank you for your reply :) You are right about commenting the lines! I will start using notation in order to improve and make my code more readable. I thought that we were supposed to be checking the first two Strings in the list like the following: if (0 < 1) the output should be 0 as it comes before the 1 which is the earliest longest num. Same goes also for the if (0 > 1) which 1 is the earliest shortest num. (0 and 1 are the index numbers of the list) Now about the int index, if (0 = 1) the index would move one position to the right (index++) in order to be compared with the next encounter. I am sure there is a simpler way to write this code. Any hints are welcome :D

Guadalupe Gagnon

Level 37 , Tampa, United States

10 December 2019, 14:55

useful

The way that the code is supposed to work is that it needs to output either the shortest word in the list or the longest, depending on which comes first. So, for example, with these words: [this, their, term, it, pregnant] The shortest word in this list is "it", while the longest is "pregnant". Therefore the correct answer would be "it" because it is the shortest word AND comes before the longest. So, there are as many different ways to solve this as their are programmers. Once you read in all the values, there are 2 things that I see need to be solved: #1: I, personally, would code in a way to first figure out the length of the shortest word and then the longest word. You can do this in the loop where you read in values; or you can do this in 1 or 2 loops after reading in the variables; or you can create a copy of the list, sort it by string length, then the front/back values will be the shortest/longest; and many other ways. #2: Once you complete step one you just need to figure out which occurs first, the shortest or the longest. I would loop through the list one last time comparing the string length of each element. Once the first string is the same length of either the shortest OR the longest, output that string and break the loop. Are you using Sys.out statements in your code for troubleshooting/debugging? This is one of the easiest ways to start debugging your code, until you start getting the hang of the actual debeugging tools in intelliJ. If not, it is really easy to do. This is just an example but once you get the hang of using it your can get a lot of really good information of what your code is doing at run time:

Guadalupe Gagnon

Level 37 , Tampa, United States

10 December 2019, 14:55

public class Solution {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
        ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<>();

        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++){
            list.add(reader.readLine());
        }
        int longest = list.get(0).length();
        int shortest = list.get(0).length();
        int index = 0;

        for (int i = 1; i < list.size(); i ++) {
            System.out.println("Testing word '" + list.get(index) + "' at index: " + i);
            if (longest < list.get(i).length()) {
                System.out.println("\tWord is longer than " + longest + "... outputting word at index " + index);
                System.out.println(list.get(index));
                break;
            } else if (shortest > list.get(i).length()) {
                System.out.println("\tWord is shorter than " + shortest + "... outputting word at index " + index);
                System.out.println(list.get(index));
                break;
            } else{
                System.out.println("\tWord not shorter or longer than " + shortest + ". Increasing index by one");
                index++;
            }
        }
    }
}

Jim_Gk

Level 1 , Sofia, Bulgaria

Expert

10 December 2019, 17:47

Thank you for all the suggestions and points. I have solved it :D I didn't understand the conditions! Thanks again for your time and interest :)

Henrique

Level 41 , São Paulo, Brazil

4 May 2020, 20:27

Hey, Guadalupe Gagnon, those steps you wrote saved me! I was able to write in code what you described in words. So helpful. Thanks a lot! :D