Question

I am new to programming, so please accept my apologies if this question is simple.

My teacher wants us to create a method that searches a stack for the name that comes first alphabetically and returns it

for example : If I have these names in my stack:

Tiger Woods, Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicholas, Jimmy Demerrit, Jack Nicholas, Sam Sneed, Jimmy Demerrit, Ben Hogan, Walter Hagen, Tommy Armor, Bobby Jones

the method should return Arnold Palmer

here is my code :

public String findFirst() {
        System.out.println("findFirst" );

        Stack<String>temp = new Stack<String>();

        char letter = 'A';
        String name = null;

        while(!names.isEmpty()) {
            name = names.peek();

            if(name.charAt(0) == letter) {
                temp.push(name);
                name = names.peek();
            } else {
                temp.push(name);
                names.pop();
            }
        }

        while(!temp.isEmpty()) {
            names.push(temp.pop());
        }

        return name;
}

the program is getting in an infinite loop

Please help me for I need to know how to fix it for my program

thank you in advance

Answer 1

Iterate the collection and return search element.

 for(String s:names)
 {
  if(s.startsWith("c")) // or if(s.charAt(0)==letter)
     {
      return s;
      }
 }
 return null;