Question

I have a large float (primitive) array and not every element in the array is filled.
How can i mark a particular element as EMPTY.
I understand this can be achieved by some special symbols but still i would like to know the standard way.
Even if i am using some special symbol , how will i handle a situation where the actual data item is the value of special symbol.
In short my question is how to implement the NULL feature in a primitive type array in java.

PS – The reason why i am not using Float object is to achieve a high memory and speed performance.

Thanks
Vineeth

Answer 1

Can you use Float.NaN?

public class FloatArray {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        float[] data = new float[10];
        data[5] = Float.NaN;
        for (float f : data){
            if (Float.isNaN(f)){
                System.out.println("No Valve");
            } else {
                System.out.println(f);
            }
        }
    }
}

Then where is not risk of using a Sentianl Value like -1 that may be valid and you can test using Float#isNaN(f)