The completed program is below.
class Searcher { // seek target in the array of strings. // return the index where found, or -1 if not found. public static int search( String[] array, String target ) { for ( int j=0; j < array.length; j++ ) if ( array[j] != null ) if ( array[j].equals( target ) ) return j ; // Target found. return -1 ; // Target not found } } public class SearchTester { public static void main ( String[] args ) { final int theSize = 20 ; String[] strArray = new String[ theSize ] ; strArray[0] = "Boston" ; strArray[1] = "Albany" ; strArray[2] = "Detroit" ; strArray[3] = "Phoenix" ; strArray[4] = "Peoria" ; strArray[6] = "Albany" ; strArray[7] = "Houston" ; strArray[8] = "Hartford" ; // print out only those cells with data for (int j=0; j < strArray.length; j++ ) if ( strArray[j] != null ) System.out.println( j + ": " + strArray[j] ); // search for "Peoria" int where = Searcher.search( strArray, "Peoria" ); if ( where >= 0 ) System.out.println("Target found in cell " + where ); else System.out.println("Target not found" ); } }
Here is the complete program.
As soon as the for
loop finds the cell that contains the target,
the method returns to the caller with the index of that cell.
If the for
loop reaches the end of the array,
-1 is returned.
How could this program be improved?