Need a return Statement? - new to coding

Question

The idea is different lots in an auction. I know I need a return statement of type "Lot" however I am not sure what that would be. Here is my code.

public Lot getLot(int lotNumber)
{
    int index = 0;
    boolean found = false;

    while(index < lots.size() && !found) {
        Lot selectedLot = lots.get(index);
        if(selectedLot.getNumber() == lotNumber) {
            found = true;

        }
        else {
            index++;

        }

    }

    if(!found) {
        found = false;

    }

}

And why is `found` important? Just return the lot when you find it, no need to keep on trucking to the end of the array. Or return `null` if the loop manages to terminate. — Amadan, Dec 09 '15 at 01:22

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 09 '15 at 01:23

What you could do is something similar to this, what this will do is if a match is found it will return the selectedLot which was the match, and if no match was found it would return null:

public Lot getLot(int lotNumber) {
    int index = 0;

    while(index < lots.size()) {
        Lot selectedLot = lots.get(index);

        if (selectedLot.getNumber() == lotNumber) {
            return selectedLot;
        } else {
            index++;
        }
    }

    return null;
}

Slava Vedenin · Answer 2 · 2015-12-09T01:30:19.873

You could use following code:

1) returns last Lot with some number

  public Lot getLot(int lotNumber)
    {
        int index = 0;
        Lot resultLot = null;
        while(index < lots.size() ) {
            Lot selectedLot = lots.get(index);
            if(selectedLot.getNumber() == lotNumber) {
                resultLot = selectedLot;
            }
            else {
                index++;
            }
        }
        return resultLot;
    }

2) or (returns first Lot with some number)

public Lot getLot(int lotNumber)
{
    int index = 0;
    while(index < lots.size() ) {
        Lot selectedLot = lots.get(index);
        if(selectedLot.getNumber() == lotNumber) {
            return selectedLot;
        }
        else {
            index++;
        }
    }
    return null;
}

3) or (smaller example)

public Lot getLot(int lotNumber)
{
    for(Lot selectedLot: lots) {
       if(selectedLot.getNumber() == lotNumber) {
            return selectedLot;
        } 
    } 
    return null; 
}

Finally one guy that uses a for loop instead of the whiles... +1 — JayC667, Dec 09 '15 at 03:04

Manish Mallavarapu · Answer 3 · 2015-12-09T01:43:00.253

1

public Lot getLot(int lotNumber) {
    int index = 0;
    boolean found = false;
    Lot selectedLot = null; //set initial value to null

    while(index < lots.size() && !found) {
      selectedLot = lots.get(index);
      if(selectedLot.getNumber() == lotNumber) {
         found = true;
      }  else {
        index++;
      }

    }
    return selectedLot; //You need to return type Lot 
}

when you say Lot getLot(int lotNumber) you are basically saying that you are returning an object of type Lot, but you never return it in your code

edited Dec 09 '15 at 01:43

answered Dec 09 '15 at 01:25

Manish Mallavarapu

425
3
12

by doing that it gives the error "cannot find variable Lot" – Dec 09 '15 at 01:40
@jjbb93 I apologize you should be returning the variable `selectedLot`, I updated it – Manish Mallavarapu Dec 09 '15 at 01:43
one more thing, your `if(!found) { found = false}` was redundant, it was already set to false no need to set it again – Manish Mallavarapu Dec 09 '15 at 01:46

Need a return Statement? - new to coding

3 Answers3