Should I use for loop or If condition

Question

This is my code in which I have to append a string so that I can output like this name,email,phoneNumber, These are the two ways I am thinking of

String matchedFields = "";
        DuplicateApplicantPojo duplicateApplicantPojo = new DuplicateApplicantPojo();
        if (applicant.getApplicantName().equals(detectionPojo.getName())) {
        matchedFields = DuplicateSettingsConstants.LABEL_NAME;
        }
        if (applicant.getApplicantEmail1().equals(detectionPojo.getEmail1())) {
        matchedFields = ", " + DuplicateSettingsConstants.LABEL_EMAIL;
        }
        if (applicant.getApplicantCellPhone().equals(detectionPojo.getCellPhone())) {
        matchedFields = ", " + DuplicateSettingsConstants.LABEL_PHONE;
        }

And another way is to

 String matchedFields[] = new String[3];
        int i=0;
        DuplicateApplicantPojo duplicateApplicantPojo = new DuplicateApplicantPojo();
        if (applicant.getApplicantName().equals(detectionPojo.getName())) {
        matchedFields[i] = DuplicateSettingsConstants.LABEL_NAME;
        i++;
        }
        if (applicant.getApplicantEmail1().equals(detectionPojo.getEmail1())) {
        matchedFields[i] = DuplicateSettingsConstants.LABEL_EMAIL;
        i++;
        }
        if (applicant.getApplicantCellPhone().equals(detectionPojo.getCellPhone())) {
        matchedFields[i] =   DuplicateSettingsConstants.LABEL_PHONE;
        }
        String matched=matchedFields[0];
        for(int j=1;j<matchedFields.length;j++)
        {
        matched=", "+matchedFields[i];
        }

Which way should I prefer ? or is there any other way through which I can proceed

technically it would be better to post this to code review though as you haven't really flagged this for errors. — Daemedeor, Sep 04 '15 at 04:21
Consider making this a bit more readable. Perhaps rename your instances to applicant, and something like expected isntead of detectionPojo — John, Sep 04 '15 at 04:49
You can make use of this http://stackoverflow.com/a/26195047/1326537 answer to implement this feature — Arun Prakash, Sep 04 '15 at 05:40
What would make you "prefer" any one solution over another? Faster? Less RAM used? Fewer edge cases? Simpler code? Smaller bytecode? Compiles without warnings in a Java 1.1 environment? ...? We can't tell you which bus to take if we don't know your destination. — Kevin J. Chase, Sep 04 '15 at 05:40

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 04 '15 at 04:23

1

Your code doesn't need to do extra stuff. First approach is enough for it.

Time complexity and space complexity both will be larger for your second approach. (though the difference is very small)

answered Sep 04 '15 at 04:23

afzalex

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Thanks for the info, but actually I wanted a better solution for this as I don't want to use as many if else – Vipul Jain Sep 04 '15 at 04:26
In your case what you were doing was best approach for it. nothing could be made better. If you come across situation where you will have to write so many if-else statements and you want to avoid it, you should have appropriate data structure to just linearly check everything. Here in your sec approach you are actually doing the same thing twice, one with if-else and then with for. – afzalex Sep 04 '15 at 04:39

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

0

well neither of them would work because you are overwriting the values from before, instead of just appending the string at the end. I would just do it in the the if test because then you wouldn't be allocating memory to the array and then keeping track of an extra int. It would be even better to use string builder if you did go using the for loop way see: when to use StringBuilder in java

edited May 23 '17 at 10:26

Community

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1

answered Sep 04 '15 at 04:20

Daemedeor

1,013
10
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So should I use stringbuffer and append fields and then use some split method on the final string ?? – Vipul Jain Sep 04 '15 at 04:23
if you want, i feel that the extra cost is not worth it, the time difference is small between the two sets for this amount of data. – Daemedeor Sep 04 '15 at 04:24
@Vipul No, it is such a simple thing. always try to make code more readable, and simple. No need to add extra complexity to it. – afzalex Sep 04 '15 at 04:24
@afzalex- So my first approach would be fine, right ? – Vipul Jain Sep 04 '15 at 04:30
@Vipul yes, that is a fine approach – Daemedeor Sep 04 '15 at 04:48

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 04 '15 at 05:05

The first one should do, except that you can use StringBuilder for appending of the "matchedFields"

StringBuilder matchedFields = new StringBuilder();
DuplicateApplicantPojo duplicateApplicantPojo = new DuplicateApplicantPojo();
if (applicant.getApplicantName().equals(detectionPojo.getName())) {
   matchedFields.append(DuplicateSettingsConstants.LABEL_NAME);
}if (applicant.getApplicantEmail1().equals(detectionPojo.getEmail1())) {
   matchedFields.append(" , ").append (DuplicateSettingsConstants.LABEL_EMAIL);
}
  .
  .
  .

Get more information about it from API : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/StringBuilder.html

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 04 '15 at 05:25

I suggest add helper method:

private static String getMatched(String prefix, String s1, String s2, String label) {
    String matchedFields = "";
    if (s1.equals(s2)) {
         matchedFields = prefix + label;
    }
    return matchedFields;
}

then you can write (+static import for DuplicateSettingsConstants):

    String matchedFields = "";
    matchedFields += getMatched("", applicant.getApplicantName(), detectionPojo.getName(), LABEL_NAME);
    matchedFields += getMatched(", ", applicant.getApplicantEmail1(), detectionPojo.getEmail1(), LABEL_EMAIL);
    matchedFields += getMatched(", ", applicant.getApplicantCellPhone(), detectionPojo.getCellPhone(), LABEL_PHONE);

Should I use for loop or If condition

4 Answers4