Question

I was wondering if there was a way to remove the default “0” value I get when I run the following code:

Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);

int [] x = new int[4];
for ( int i = 1; i < x.length; i++ )
{
    System.out.println( "Enter number " + i + ": ");
    x[i] = scan.nextInt();
}
Arrays.sort(x);
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(x));
}

The output is as follows

[0, i[1], i[2], i[3]]

Of course, all the array values here are actually the numbers entered into the console.
The code is WORKING. It successfully sorts any numbers into the correct order, however, there is always this nasty 0.

I’m not looking to remove ALL 0’s (I want the user to be able to enter 0 and have it show up) – -I just don’t want the default 0. Any ideas?

Answer 1

When you allocate an array of size 4, you’re allocating four ints: i[0],i[1],i[2], and i[3]. Because Java is fairly friendly, it sets all four of these to 0. So what you’re seeing on the output is [i[0],i[1],i[2],i[3]] (in sorted order). The sort isn’t adding the 0, it was already there. If you only want 3 numbers, then you should allocate an int[3] rather than an int[4]. And then, to go along with that, when you ask for number 1, store it in i[0]. The simplest change to do this would be to simply change the top line to

 int [] x = new int[3];

and the later line to

 x[i-1] = scan.nextInt();

The change suggested by other answers is the more common, one, though. Most programmers would have i go from 0 to 2 and then output i+1 when talking to the user.