Foreach loop throwing an error I don't exactly understand

Question

I'm relatively new to Java and I'm having a problem with a foreach loop in a method I'm writing. I keep getting an astronomical index out-of-bounds error but I have no idea where it's coming from.

Here's my code.

public static int smallestInt(int[] arr)
{
    int minVal = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
    
    
    for (int value : arr)
    {
        if (arr[value] < minVal)
        {
            minVal = arr[value];
        }
    }
    if (arr.length == 0)
    {
        return Integer.MIN_VALUE;
    }
    
    return minVal;

}

The error thrown states: Index 88 out of bounds for length 6

Any help will be appreciated, as I have been stuck on this for quite a while

please share the stack trace. what line is throwing the exception? — vaibhavsahu, Sep 01 '21 at 23:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 01 '21 at 23:48

1

A for-each loop access an array value with a hidden index. This

if (arr[value] < minVal)
{
    minVal = arr[value];
}

Should be

if (value < minVal)
{
    minVal = value;
}

or

minVal = Math.min(minVal, value);

answered Sep 01 '21 at 23:48

Elliott Frisch

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 06 '21 at 18:25

Try applying this to your array

    public static int smallestInt(int[] arr)
{
    int minVal = arr[0];
    
    
    for (int value : arr)
    {
        if (arr[value] < minVal)
        {
            minVal = arr[value];
        }
    }
    
    return minVal;
}

the array value will never be less than the Integer.MAX_VALUE because you are setting the minVal variable to the highest number possible that can be stored as a int which is 2147483647

Foreach loop throwing an error I don't exactly understand

2 Answers2