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Thread: Minimum value of objects in ArrayList

  1. #1
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    Default Minimum value of objects in ArrayList

    Hey All!
    I am a newbie in Java but have come across a problem I can't really grasp.
    If you can, please enlighten me, as my head got stuck on this issue

    Alright: assume an ArrayList with objects of class Employee which all have names, id's and salaries. Problem - find the minimum salary.

    So, I understand that I need to create a for loop, but here's where things become tricky. I have no problem of finding min/max of INT in Arrays, or longest/shortest strings in ArrayLists, and even max salary in this ArrayList (i.e. for loops).

    I do not want to use Collections or similar methods - so where do I do it wrong?

    Example:
                 int lowest = ArrayList.size();
    			for(Employee s:ArrayList){
    				if(s.getSalary()<lowest){
    				   lowest = s.getSalary();
    				}
    		}

    ? - lowest becomes ArrayList.size(), but not the smallest salary.


  2. #2
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    Default Re: Minimum value of objects in ArrayList

    Simple. Start with some other value for lowest.

    The most common idiom is to initialize a int variable that has to receive a minimum to Integer.MAX_VALUE, and to initialize a numeric variable that has to receive a maximum value to 0. In either case, you can also choose to initialize the value to the first value extracted from the collection -- list.get(0).getValue().

    db

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to Darryl.Burke For This Useful Post:

    Sputnik (October 23rd, 2010)

  4. #3
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    Default Re: Minimum value of objects in ArrayList

    Darryl.Burke

    Thank you!
    It all makes sense now, it's all about that value of int variable - fix that and you're good to go!

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