Question

I’m trying to update an array element in Java. Some sort of a database like program, but using an array to store data temporarily.

The code seems to be working only on the first array element which is 0.
If I try to search for other records, it cannot find them. I don’t know why.

boolean blnFound=false;
    String strP=getString("Input product to update: ");

    try{
        //loop through the array
        for(int a=0; a<iSl; a++){
            if(strP.compareToIgnoreCase(aProd_name[a])==0){

                //display information match is found
                Display("Product already registered..");
                Display("Product ID: ",aProd_id[a]);
                Display("Product Name: ", aProd_name[a]);
                Display("Product Description: ", aProd_desc[a]);
                Display("Product Size: ", aSize[a]);
                Display("Total Quantity: ", aTotalQty[a]);

                Display("Quantity on hand: ", aQtyonHand[a]);
                Display("Reorder Quantity: ", aReorder[a]);
                Display("Dealer Price: ", aDPrice[a]);
                Display("Selling Price: ", aSPrice[a]);
                Display("Manufacture date: ", aMDate[a]);
                Display("Expiry date: ", aEDate[a]);
                Display("Manufacturer: ", aManufacturer[a]);
                blnFound=true;

Here’s the part where it updates:

//Input new information
aProd_id[a]=getInteger("Input new  product id: ");

aProd_desc[a]=getString("Input new product description: ");
aSize[a]=getString("Input new size: ");
aTotalQty[a]=getDouble("Input new total quantity: ");
aQtyonHand[a]=getDouble("Input new quantity on hand: ");
aReorder[a]=getDouble("Input new reorder: ");
aDPrice[a]=getDouble("Input new dealer price: ");
aSPrice[a]=getDouble("Input new selling price: ");
aMDate[a]=getString("Input new manufactured date: ");
aEDate[a]=getString("Input new expiration date: ");
aManufacturer[a]=getString("Input new manufacturer: ");
Display("Product updated!");

Answer 1

It looks to me like you are using parallel arrays for storing one type of object. May I recommend a large change? (I’m gonna no matter what you say)

I would create a class called Product or some name that describes the object.

It would look something like this:

public class Product {

    // members storing the data
    private int id;
    private String name;
    private String description;
    private String size;
    private int totalQuant;

    // the rest go here
}

Then, I would store them in a Map<Integer, Product>.

Product someProduct;
Map<String, Product> dataBase = new HashMap<String, Product>();
dataBase.put(someProduct.getName(), someProduct);

That is also how you would ‘update’ the database. When something is entered that is not already in the database, you just need to create a new object and put it into the Map.

Then you can easily search the Map like so:

boolean productIsRegistered = dataBase.containsKey(strP);