Question

I’m trying to find the smallest word in a user entered string. This is what I have so far:

import java.util.*;
public static void main(String[] args) {
    Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);

    String myText = sc.next();
    String[] myWords = myText.split(" ");
    int shortestLength,shortestLocation;

    shortestLength=(myWords[0]).length();

    shortestLocation=0;

    for (int i=1;i<myWords.length;i++) {
        if ((myWords[i]).length() < shortestLength) {
            shortestLength=(myWords[i]).length();
            shortestLocation=i;
        }
    }
    System.out.println(myWords[shortestLocation]);
}

If I entered "SMALLEST WORD SHOULD BE A", the output should be A but it just gives me the first word of the string. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Your algorithm is fine, but instead of using next():

String myText = sc.next();

Which will only read a single token, i.e., the first word, use nextLine(), which will read the entire line:

String myText = sc.nextLine();