Question

I’m trying to find the high and low number in an array, but I’m not sure why my codes not working correctly. It’s giving me the output of 0 and 56. I understand why it’s giving the 0, but where did the 56 come from?

package test;

public class Test {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int[] numbs = { '2', '4', '2', '8', '4', '2', '5'};

        int count = 0;
        int low = 0;
        int high = 0;

        while(count < numbs.length)
        {
             if(numbs[count]< low) {
                low = numbs[count];
            }

            if(numbs[count]> high) {
                high = numbs[count];
            }

            count++;   
        }

        System.out.println(low); 
        System.out.println(high);           

    }
}

Answer 1

You need to start the low low enough; currently, you start it at zero – too low to “catch” the lowest element of the array.

There are two ways to deal with this:

• Use Integer.MAX_VALUE and Integer.MIN_VALUE to start the high and low, or
• Use the initial element of the array to start both high and low, then process the array starting with the second element.

---

int low = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
int high = Integer.MIN_VALUE;

---

P.S. You would find strange numbers printed, because you used characters instead of integers:

int[] numbs = { 2, 4, 2, 8, 4, 2, 5};