chapter vii: arrays

Chapter VII: Arrays

Chapter overview This chapter focuses on

Array declaration and use

Bounds checking and capacity

Arrays storing object references

Variable length parameter lists

Multidimensional arrays

The ArrayList class

Arrays: definition

Array is a powerful construct used to group and organize data

manages a large amount of information such as a list of 100 names

it is not logical to declare separate variables in this case

declares one variable Holding multiple, individually accessible values

Arrays

An array is an ordered list of values

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

79 87 94 82 67 98 87 81 74 91height

The entire arrayhas a single name

Each value has a numeric index

Array indices always begin at zero An array of size N is indexed from zero to N-1

This array holds 10 values that are indexed from 0 to 9

Accessing array elements

A particular value in an array is referenced using the array name

followed by the index in brackets Example: height[2] refers to the value 94

height[2] referred to as array element represents a single integer stored at a memory location

Can be used wherever an integer variable can be used

Manipulating array elements

An array element Can be assigned a value, printed, or used in calculation

height[2] = 89;

height[first] = height[first] + 2;

mean = (height[0] + height[1])/2;

System.out.println ("Top = " + height[5]);

Array elements Values stored in an array are called array elements

An array stores multiple values of the same type Called the element type

The element type can be Primitive type or

Object reference

Therefore, we can create An array of integers, characters, or String objects

Declaring arrays

In Java, the array is an object It must be declared and instantiated as follows

int[] height = new int[10];

The type of variable height is an array of integers (int [ ])

And reference variable height is set to a new array object that holds 10 integers

Refer to BasicArray.java

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

79 87 94 82 67 98 87 81 74 91height

Declaring Arrays The scores array could be declared as follows:

int[] scores = new int[10];

The type of the variable scores

is int[] (an array of integers)

Note that the array type

does not specify its size,

but each object of that type has a specific size

The reference variable scores

is set to a new array object that can hold 10 integers

Declaring Arrays

Some other examples of array declarations:

float[] prices = new float[500];

boolean[] flags;

flags = new boolean[20];

char[] codes = new char[1750];

Using Arrays

The iterator version of the for loop can be used when processing array elements

for (int score : scores) System.out.println (score);

This is only appropriate when processing all array elements

from top (lowest index) to bottom (highest index)







The ArrayList class

Bounds checking

Once an array is created, it has a fixed size N int[ ] height = new int[10];

=> size of height = 10

An index used must specify a valid element That is, index value must be in the range of 0 to N-1

The valid indexes for height are from 0 to 9

In other words, height[10], height[11], … are not allowed

Automatic bounds checking

Whenever you reference an element in the array => the value of index used is checked

Example: height[index] => index is checked if 0<= index <= 9 => valid if index > 9 => index not valid (out of bound)

If an array index is out of bound An out-of -bound exception is issued by the execution

This is called automatic bounds checking

Refer to Invalidindex.java

Off-by-one errors For example,

if the array codes can hold 100 values

it can be indexed using only the numbers 0 to 99

If the value of count is 100,

then the following reference will cause an exception to be thrown:

System.out.println (codes[count]);

It’s common to introduce off-by-one errors

when using arrays

for (int index=0; index <= 100; index++)codes[index] = index*50 + epsilon;

problem

Length constant

One way to check for the bounds of an array use the length constant

Each array has a public constant called length

That stores the size of the array

It is referenced using the array name The array Prices created with 25 elements

Prices.length contains the value 25

maximum index of Prices is Prices.length - 1

The length constant

Note That length

holds the number elements NOT the largest index

Useful in situations where you don’t know the size of the array

Refer to ReverseOrder.java Read a list of numbers from the user

Store them in an array

Then print them in the opposite order

Alternate array syntax When declaring an array, the brackets can either

be associated with the type of values stored in the array float[] prices;

or with the name of array float prices[];

These 2 declarations are equivalent

However, the first format Associating brackets with the type

is more readable and should be used

Initializer lists

Initializer lists are used to instantiate an array

And provide initial values for the elements of the array

=> The idea is to instantiate and fill the array in one step

Values delimited by braces and separated by commas

When used, the new operator will no more be needed Size of array determined by the number of items in initializer

Initializer lists: Examples

Examples:

int[] units = {147, 323, 89, 933, 540, 269, 97, 114, 298, 476};

char[] letterGrades = {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', ’F'};

Note that when an initializer list is used The new operator is not used

no size value is specified As size is determined by the number of items in the list

See Primes.java







The ArrayList class

Arrays of objects

The elements of an array can be object references

The following declaration reserves space to store 5 references to String objects

String[] words = new String[5];

Initially, an array of objects holds null references

Each object stored in an array must be instantiated separately

Initial array of object declaration

The words array when initially declared String[] words = new String[5];

words -

-

-

-

-

After a few object creation

After some String objects are created

and stored in the array

“friendship”

words

-

-

“loyalty”

“honor”

String literals

Keep in mind String objects can be created using string literals

The following declaration Creates an array object called verbs

and fills it with four String objects

Created using string literals

String[] verbs = {"play", "work", "eat", "sleep"};

Array of objects: application

The following example Creates an array of Grade objects

Each with a string representation and

a numeric lower bound

Refer to GradeRange.java, and Grade.java

Command line arguments

The signature of the main method it takes an array of String objects as a parameter

Ignored so far, let us discuss how it might be useful

The String[] parameter called args represents command line arguments

provided when the interpreter is invoked

Extra information on CLI is stored in the args

Command line arguments (cont’d)

For example The following invocation of the interpreter

passes 3 String objects into main

java StateEval pennsylvania texas arizona

These strings are stored At indexes 0-2 of the array parameter of the main method

See CLI_reading.java and NameTag.java

Arrays as parameters

An entire array Can be passed as a parameter to a method

In which case The method may permanently change an element of the array

An individual array element Can be passed to a method as well

The type of the parameter is the same as element type

Example

Design and implement a method That accepts an array of integer values

and then calculates the numerical average

of the group of numbers that are stored in the array

Example: solution

public double average (int[] list){ double result = 0.0;

if (list.length != 0) { int sum = 0; for (int num : list) sum += num; result = (double)num / list.length; }

return result;}

33

Method Overloading

Method overloading is the process

of giving a single method name multiple definitions

If a method is overloaded,

the method name is not sufficient to determine

which method is being called

The signature of each overloaded method must be unique

The signature includes

the number, type, and order of the parameters

Method Overloading

The compiler determines which method is being invoked by analyzing the parameters

float tryMe(int x){ return x + .375;}

float tryMe(int x, float y){ return x*y;}

result = tryMe(25, 4.32)

Invocation

35

Method Overloading

The println method is overloaded:

println (String s)

println (int i)

println (double d)

and so on...

The following lines invoke different versions of the println method:

System.out.println ("The total is:");

System.out.println (total);


Suppose We want to create a method

That processes a different amount of data

From one invocation to the next

For example, let us design a method called average That returns the average of a set of integer parameters

// one call to average three valuesmean1 = average (42, 69, 37);

// another call to average seven valuesmean2 = average (35, 43, 93, 23, 40, 21, 75);

Possible solutions

define overloaded versions of the average method Downside:

This requires that we know the max number of parameters

And create a separate version of the method for each parameter count

define the method to accept an array of integers Downside

Need to create the array and store integers prior to method call

Instead, Java provides a more convenient way to create variable length parameter lists

Syntax of variable length parameter list

Using a special syntax You can define a method

To accept any number of parameter of the same type

For each method call The parameters are automatically

Put into an array for easy processing in the method

public double average (int ... list){ // whatever} element

typearrayname

Indicates a variable length parameter list

Variable length parameter list average method

public double average (int ... list){ double result = 0.0;

if (list.length != 0) { int sum = 0; for (int num : list) sum += num; result = (double)num / list.length; }

return result;}

Type of the multiple parameters

The type of the parameters can be any primitive or object type

public void printGrades (Grade ... grades){ for (Grade letterGrade : grades) System.out.println (letterGrade);}

methods accepting a variable number of parameters

A method that accepts a variable number of parameters

Can also accept other parameters

The following method Accepts an

int, a String object, and a variable number of doublepublic void test (int count, String name, double ... nums){ // whatever}

Variable length parameter lists: example

The varying number of parameters must come last in the formal arguments

A single method cannot accept Two sets of varying parameters

Constructors Can also be setup

to accept a variable number of parameters

Refer to VariableParameters.java & Family.java

chapter vii: arrays

Documents

array type

array elementrepresents

array of integersnote

array indices

new array objectthat

array of integers int

createan array of integers

examples of array declarations