Unit 6: Arrays

Introduction to Arrays

Adapted from:
1) Building Java Programs: A Back to Basics
Approach
by Stuart Reges and Marty Stepp
2) Runestone CSAwesome Curriculum

https://longbaonguyen.github.io
 Can we solve this
problem?
• Consider the following program (input underlined):

How many days' temperatures? 7

Day 1's high temp: 45
Day 2's high temp: 44
Day 3's high temp: 39
Day 4's high temp: 48
Day 5's high temp: 37
Day 6's high temp: 46
Day 7's high temp: 53
Average temp = 44.6
4 days were above average.

Do we want to store these in separate integer variables?

What if the user want to enter 1000 temperatures? (temp1,
temp2,..temp1000?) 2
 Arrays
• array: object that stores many values of the same
type.
– value: One value in an array.
– index: A 0-based integer to access an element from an
array.
inde 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
x
value 12 49 -2 26 5 17 -6 84 72 3

index 0 index 4 index 9

value is 12 value is 5 value is 3

3
 Array declaration
type[] name = new type[length];
– Example:
int[] numbers = new int[10];

Note: The size of an array is established at the time of

creation and cannot be changed. Array type can be
primitive such as int and boolean or object reference type
such as String or Point.

inde 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
x
value 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

4
 Array declaration, cont.
• The length can be any integer expression.
int x = 2 * 3 + 1;
int[] data = new int[x % 5 + 2];

• Each element initially gets a "zero-equivalent" value.

Type Default value
int 0
double 0.0
boolean false
String null
or other object (means, "no object")

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 Accessing elements
name[index] // access
name[index] = value; // modify

– Example:
numbers[0] = 27;
numbers[3] = -6;
System.out.println(numbers[0]);
if (numbers[3] < 0) {
System.out.println("Element 3 is negative.");
}

inde 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
x
value 27
0 0 0 -6
0 0 0 0 0 0 0

6
 Arrays of other types
double[] results = new double[5];
results[2] = 3.4;
results[4] = -0.5;

inde 0 1 2 3 4
x
value 0.0 0.0 3.4 0.0 -0.5

boolean[] tests = new boolean[6];

tests[3] = true;
inde 0 1 2 3 4 5
x
value fals fals fals tru fals fals
e e e e e e
7
 Arrays of other types

String[] words = new String[5];

words[1] = "hi";
words[3] = "hello";

index 0 1 2 3 4
value null "hi" null "hello nul
" l

8
 Arrays of other types
Point[] pts = new Point[5];
pts[1] = new Point(2, 3);
pts[4] = new Point();

index 0 1 2 3 4
value null null null

Point Point
x=2 x=0
y=3 y=0

Note that each element of the pts array store the

reference
to a Point object.
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 Out-of-bounds
• Legal indexes: between 0 and the array's length - 1.
– Reading or writing any index outside this range will throw
an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException.

• Example:
int[] data = new int[10];
System.out.println(data[0]); // okay
System.out.println(data[9]); // okay
System.out.println(data[-1]); // exception
System.out.println(data[10]); // exception

inde 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
x
value 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

10
 Accessing array elements
int[] numbers = new int[8];
numbers[1] = 3;
numbers[4] = 99;
numbers[6] = 2;
int x = numbers[1];
numbers[x] = 42;
numbers[numbers[6]] = 11; // use numbers[6] as index

x 3

inde 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
x
numbers
value 0 3 11 42 99 0 2 0

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 Arrays and for loops
• It is common to use for loops to access array elements. This
is called traversing the array.
for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
System.out.print(numbers[i] + " ");
}
System.out.println(); // output: 0 3 11 42 99 0 2 0

• Sometimes we assign each element a value in a loop.

for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {

numbers[i] = 2 * i;
}
inde 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
x
valu 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
e 12
 The length field
• An array's length field stores its number of elements.
name.length

for (int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++) {

System.out.print(numbers[i] + " ");
}
// output: 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

– It does not use parentheses like a String's .length().

• What expressions refer to:

– The last element of any array? numbers.length - 1
– The middle element? numbers.length/2, if length is even, this element is
the first element of the second half of the array.
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 Arrays and while loops
While loop can also be used to traverse the array. The following
compute the sum of an array using a while loop and a for loop. Note the
difference. In both cases, this requires the elements of the array to be
accessed by the indices(i).

While Loop:
int sum = 0;
int i = 0;
while(i < numbers.length){
sum += numbers[i];
i++;
} Typically, traversing an array
For Loop: is best done with a for loop.
int sum = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < numbers.length; i++){
sum += numbers[i];
}

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 Quick array initialization
Arrays can be used created quickly using initializer
lists.

type[] name = {value, value, … value};

– Example:
int[] numbers = {12, 49, -2, 26, 5, 17, -6};
inde 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
x
value 12 49 -2 26 5 17 -6

– Useful when you know what the array's elements will be

– The compiler figures out the size by counting the values
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 "Array mystery" problem
What element values are stored in the following array?

int[] a = {1, 7, 5, 6, 4, 14, 11};

for (int i = 0; i < a.length - 1; i++) {
if (a[i] > a[i + 1]) {
a[i + 1] = a[i + 1] * 2;
}
}

inde 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
x
valu 1 7 10 12 8 14 22
e
16
 Limitations of arrays
• You cannot resize an existing array:
int[] a = new int[4];
a.length = 10; // error

• You cannot compare arrays with == or equals:

int[] a1 = {42, -7, 1, 15};
int[] a2 = {42, -7, 1, 15};
if (a1 == a2) { ... } // false!
if (a1.equals(a2)) { ... } // false!

• An array does not know how to print itself:

int[] a1 = {42, -7, 1, 15};
System.out.println(a1); // [I@98f8c4]

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 Arrays.toString
public static void main(String[] args) {
int[] a = {0, 14, 4, 6, 8};
System.out.println(a);
}
Output: I@674f1c67 6. (14 pts)

Prints out the address not the contents of a.

Arrays.toString accepts an array as a parameter and

returns a String representation of its elements.
– Must import java.util.*;
– Arrays is one of the classes in the util’s package.
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 Arrays.toString
import java.util.*;

public class Example

public static void main(String[] args) {
int[] a = {0, 14, 4, 6, 8};
System.out.println("a is " +
Arrays.toString(a));
}

Output:
a is [0, 14, 4, 6, 8]

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 Arrays

String[] a={"hip", "hip"};

//hip hip arrays!

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 Arrays

He didn’t get arrays and he didn’t get a raise.

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 Array Lab 1
Write the method average which accepts an int array and
returns the average of the values.

Write the method countAboveAve which accepts an int array and

returns the number of values that are above the average. You must
call
average.

Write the method largest which accepts an int array and returns
the largest value of the array.

Write the method indexOfsmallest which accepts an int array and

returns the index of the smallest value. If there are multiple smallest
values, return the index of the first one.

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 Array Lab 1
Also write the main method with an array and check to make
sure your methods work!

public static double average(int[] array){}

public static int countAboveAve(int[] array){}
public static int largest(int[] array){}
public static int indexOfsmallest(int[] array){}

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 Array Lab 2
This lab is on Processing.

Write the Ball class with attributes center_x,

center_y, change_x, change_y, radius(floats) and a
color.

Methods:
update()
display()

Make it bounce on the screen. We have done this

before but the the ball was not an object. 24
 Array Lab 2
Create an array of ball objects and make it move on
the screen!

Write a method largestBall

that returns the largest Ball
and set it to a different color.

There's a .pde template file

on my github website if you need
some help.

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