Question

So I have a simple method that takes two inputs a String and an array list of strings. I try to search for the given string in the given array list and if it’s found I return it, if not I return a statement saying that it wasn’t found
here’s my code:

String findWord(String word, ArrayList<String> list){
    for(int i=0; i<list.size(); i++)
        if(word.equals(list.get(i)))
            return word;
        else
            return "Word not found";
}

I also tried:

String findWord(String word, ArrayList<String> list){
    String myString = null;
    for(int i=0; i<list.size(); i++)
        if(word.equals(list.get(i)))
            myString= word;
        else
            myString = "Word not found";
    return myString;
}

but the return value is always null.

Answer 1

Try,

String findWord (String word, ArrayList<String> list) {
   for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
      if (word.equals (list.get (i))) {
          return list.get (i);
      }
   }
   return "Word not found";
 }