Question

I am currently working on a lab and would like to know how to handle the following problem which I have spent at least two hours on:

I am asked to create an ArrayList containing the values 1, 2, 3, 4 and 10. Whilst I usually never have any trouble creating an ArrayList with said values, I am having trouble this time. Should I create the ArrayList outside of the method or inside the method? Whichever way I have attempted it, I have been presented with numerous error messages. How do I add values to this ArrayList parameter? I have attempted to add values to it when calling it from the main method, but this still doesn’t work. Here is the method in question.

public static double ScalesFitness(ArrayList<Double> weights){
    //code emitted for illustration purposes
}

If anybody could help me it would be greatly appreciated. If any more code is required, then please let me know.

Thank you so much.

Mick.

EDIT: The code for the class in question is as follows:

import java.util.*;

public class ScalesSolution
{
private static String scasol;
//Creates a new scales solution based on a string parameter
//The string parameter is checked to see if it contains all zeros and ones
//Otherwise the random binary string generator is used (n = length of parameter)
public ScalesSolution(String s)
{
    boolean ok = true;
    int n = s.length();
    for(int i=0;i<n;++i)
    {
        char si = s.charAt(i);
        if (si != '0' && si != '1') ok = false;
    }
    if (ok)
    {
        scasol = s;
    }
    else
    {
        scasol = RandomBinaryString(n);
    }
}
private static String RandomBinaryString(int n)
{
    String s = new String();

    for(int i = 0; i > s.length(); i++){
        CS2004.UI(0,1);
            if(i == 0){
                System.out.println(s + "0");
            }
            else if(i == 0){
                System.out.println(s + "1");
            }
    }

    return(s);
}
public ScalesSolution(int n) 
{
    scasol = RandomBinaryString(n); 
}
//This is the fitness function for the Scales problem
//This function returns -1 if the number of weights is less than
//the size of the current solution



public static double scalesFitness(ArrayList<Double> weights)
{   
    if (scasol.length() > weights.size()) return(-1);
    double lhs = 0.0,rhs = 0.0;

    double L = 0;
    double R = 0;

    for(int i = 0; i < scasol.length(); i++){
        if(lhs == 0){
            L = L + i;
        }
        else{
            R = R + i;
        }
    }

    int n = scasol.length();

    return(Math.abs(lhs-rhs));
}
//Display the string without a new line
public void print()
{
    System.out.print(scasol);
}
//Display the string with a new line
public void println()
{
    print();
    System.out.println();
}

}

The other class file that I am using (Lab7) is:

import java.util.ArrayList;

public class Lab7 {

public static void main(String args[])
{

    for(int i = 0 ; i < 10; ++i)
    {
        double x = CS2004.UI(-1, 1);
        System.out.println(x);
    }

    System.out.println();

    ScalesSolution s = new ScalesSolution("10101");
    s.println();

}

}

Answer 1

you can these

1) use varargs instead of list

public static double scalesFitness(Double...weights)

so you can call this method with :

scalesFitness(1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 10.0);

2) create the list outside your method

ArrayList<Double> weights = new ArrayList<Double>();
weights.add(1.0); 
weights.add(2.0); 
weights.add(3.0); 
weights.add(4.0); 
weights.add(10.0); 

scalesFitness(weights);