CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaloops
shewontreply
shewontreply

Reputation: 51

Java logic issues

I'm working on a method that finds the first instance of a given value and returns its position. It works for some cases, but if I give it an array of [1,2,3], and set the value to 2, it returns 0, instead of 1. I'm not sure why, either. Here is the code: 

int b = 0;
for(int a = 0; a < values.length; a++) {
    if (values[a] == find){
        b++;
    }
}
return b-1;

Thanks in advance!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 72

Answers (3)

Sednus
Sednus

Reputation: 2113

Its because you are returning b-1. In fact, if you need to find the same instance and return the index, you wont even need the variable b. You could achieve this with something like this:

for( int a = 0; a < values.length; a++) {

if (values[a] == find){
   return a;
 }
}

return -1 // Notfound
}

Add the return -1 line for when a value is not found, to use as a sentinel value.

Upvotes: 6

Priyank Patel
Priyank Patel

Reputation: 6996

Why not return a itself instead of doing b-1;

Maybe you can add a break statement too to stop iterating as you just need the position of first instance

    int b=0,result;
    for( int a = 0; a<values.length; a++)
    {

    if (values[a] == find)
     {
       result=a;
       break;
     }
    }

 return result;

Upvotes: 1

pillingworth
pillingworth

Reputation: 3238

Try 

for( int a = 0; a<values.length; a++) {
    if (values[a] == find){
        return a;
    }
}

Upvotes: 2

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