Finding highest value from a record

Question

I'm trying to code a procedure which goes through a record of numbers and finds which one is highest, the code currently is below. The issue I have is that it just seems to list the last score on the record (not the highest). Any help is greatly appreciated.

Procedure FindTopScore(Var TopScores : TTopScores);
Var
Count : Integer;
Highest : Integer;
Name: String;

Begin
     For Count := 1 to MaxSize Do
          If TopScores[Count].Score > Highest Then
     Highest := TopScores[Count].Score;
     Name := TopScores[Count].Name;
       Writeln('Higest score is by ' ,TopScores[Count].Name, ' of ', TopScores[Count].Score);
End;

Howard · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-25T19:08:51.877

2

You're not outputting Highest, but TopScores[Count].Score. Just use

 Writeln('Highest is ', Highest, ' for ', Name);

Also you should put the name into a variable Name inside the if-statement (it actually is outside).

Addon: If you want all names in case of a tie you can use e.g. the following code

Highest := 0;
For Count := 1 to MaxSize Do Begin
     If TopScores[Count].Score = Highest Then Begin
         Name := Name + ' and ' + TopScores[Count].Name;
     End;
     If TopScores[Count].Score > Highest Then Begin
         Highest := TopScores[Count].Score;
         Name := TopScores[Count].Name;
     End;
 End;

edited May 25 '11 at 19:08

answered May 25 '11 at 17:55

Howard

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Ah I see thanks. Also fixed name issue. Thanks for pointing that out. Also say if two people have the same top scores, anyway to output both of them? – orange May 25 '11 at 18:04
@Jeff you can e.g. append the new name to variable `Name` if `TopScores[Count].Score = Highest` inside your loop and replace it if it is truely greater. – Howard May 25 '11 at 18:23
I'm confused, possible for you to show me the code? I made it = to highest but output is just random ASCII characters. – orange May 25 '11 at 18:56
Thanks, I understand now. I was bit confused when you said new name to variable. I get it now. Thanks! – orange May 25 '11 at 21:03

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 25 '11 at 17:59

1

In addition to Howard's answer, set '0' to 'Highest' before beginning the loop. Being uninitialized, it is having an arbitrary value, probably higher then the highest score.

answered May 25 '11 at 17:59

Sertac Akyuz

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Thanks but what is the advantage of doing this because it works fine without it as well. – orange May 25 '11 at 18:08
@Jeff - An uninitialized local variable holds the value of its memory location. For an integer it can be 0 or anything else, it can be 0 now but it might be anything else some other time the procedure is executed. If you're not using a commonly used compiler like FPC, Delphi, check your compilers documentation if this is so or not.. – Sertac Akyuz May 25 '11 at 18:39

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 28 '11 at 09:29

In addition to the accepted answer, make sure you turn on your warnings and hints, and you'll see:

      testhighest.pp(16,39) Warning: Local variable "Highest" does not seem to be initialized

which is the

        If TopScores[Count].Score > Highest Then

line

Finding highest value from a record

3 Answers3