ArrayList looping only outputs the last item

Question

I am trying to loop through an ArrayList, and compare each index value to a default value, if the index value matches the default value, I want to return true, the only problem is that, it always returns true only to the index item that is added. Since my class doesn't have a main method, I have added those values during the class constructor initialization.

  public class CountryFinderImpl implements CountryFinder{

    List<String> Countries = new ArrayList<String>();



    public CountryFinderImpl() {

        Countries.add("canada");
        Countries.add("japan");
        Countries.add("usa");

    }

    @Override
    public boolean forWeather(String country) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        country = country.toLowerCase();
        boolean c=false;


                for(int i=0; i<Countries.size();i++) {
                    if(Countries.get(i).equals(country)) {
                        //System.out.println(country+"Weather available");
                        c=true;
                    }else {
                        //System.out.println(country+"weather unavilable");
                        c=false;
                    }

                }


        return c;
    }

}

The country parameter is passed from another class, which takes the country value from the user.

In the loop: `if(Countries.get(i).equals(country)) { return true; }` *After* the loop, `return false;` -- so if nothing in the loop matches, it defaults to false — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Mar 26 '20 at 11:16
But even when i pass something inside the arraylist it still returns false, it only returns true for the last item in the arraylist — George Silva, Mar 26 '20 at 11:17
Loop could be replaced by `return countries.contains(country.toLowerCase());` — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Mar 26 '20 at 11:17
What exactly is this method supposed to do? If you want to return multiple values from it, you have to create a collection and return that. — Amongalen, Mar 26 '20 at 11:19
your loop doesn't stop when you find the country, you need to break the loop, add break after c= true; — Abhinav Chauhan, Mar 26 '20 at 11:20

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 26 '20 at 11:19

In each iteration of the loop, you overwrite c, regardless of its value, so you'll always return the result fot the last element. One solution is to use the "early return" idiom and return true immediatly when the item is found:

@Override
public boolean forWeather(String country) {
    country = country.toLowerCase();
    for (int i = 0; i < Countries.size() ;i++) {
         if (Countries.get(i).equals(country)) {
             return true;
         }
    }
    return false;
}

Note, however, that this is just a reimplementation of the contains method, so you might as well just use it:

@Override
public boolean forWeather(String country) {
     return Countries.contains(country.toLowerCase());
}

ArrayList looping only outputs the last item

1 Answers1