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AP Comp Sci A

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Unit 7

7.4 Developing Algorithms Using ArrayLists

6 min read•june 18, 2024

Avanish Gupta

Milo Chang

AP Computer Science A 💻

130 resources

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Standard Algorithms

Using the traversals and methods that we have learned in the previous two topics, we can make the same algorithms that we have developed for arrays (see Topic 6.4) with slight changes. Here, we will have a snippet for each algorithm you are expected to know, with each snippet annotated for you.

Modifying Array Values

/** Doubles each element of the ArrayList
*/
public static void doubleArray(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  for (int i = 0; i < array.size(); i++) {
    array.set(i, array.get(i) * 2); // doubles each individual element
  }
}

Modifying Instance Variables of Objects in an Array

/** Represents a student
*/
public class Student {
  private String name;
  
  /** Sets the name of the Student
  */
  public void setName(String name) {
    this.name = name;
  }

  /** Other instance variables, methods, and constructors not shown
  */
}
// IN ANOTHER CLASS
/** Resets all students' names
*/
public static void doubleArray(ArrayList<Student> array, String defaultName) {
  for (Student student: array) {
    student.setName(defaultName); // Sets each student's name to a default name
  }
}

Finding the Minimum and Maximum

/** Finds the maximum
*/
public static int maximum(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  int maxValue = array.get(0);
  for (int number: array) {
    if (number > maxValue) { //if new max value found, replace current maxValue
      maxValue = number;
    }
  }
  return maxValue;
}

/** Finds the minimum
*/
public static int minimum(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  int minValue = array.get(0);
  for (int number: array) {
    if (number < minValue) { //if new min value found, replace current minValue
     minValue = number;
    }
  }
  return minValue;
}

A common mistake is initializing the maxValue and minValue to 0.

If all the values in the array are positive, it would incorrectly keep minValue at 0 (all the values are greater than 0, leaving 0 as the minimum).
If all the values in the array are negative, it would incorrectly keep maxValue at 0 (all the values are less than 0, leaving 0 as the maximum).

To counter these errors, initialize these to the first value in the array.

Finding a Sum

/** Sums up all elements in the ArrayList
*/
public static int sum(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  int sum = 0;
  for (int number: array) {
    sum += number; //adds every element to sum
  }
  return sum;
}

Finding a Mean

/** Finds the mean/average of the ArrayList
*/
public static int mean(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  int sum = sum(array); // find the sum of the ArrayList, can be replaced with sum algorithm above
  return (double) sum / (array.size());
}

Finding a Mode

/** Finds the mode of an ArrayList

Prerequisite:

 The array must have a mode
*/
public static int mode(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  int mostCommon = 0;
  int mostCommonFrequency = 0;
  for (int i = 0; i < array.size() - 1; i++) { //traverse through the ArrayList
    int currentFrequency = 1;
    for (int j = i + 1; j < array.size(); j++) { //traverse through rest of ArrayList
      if (array.get(j) == array.get(i)) { 
         // if any element matches current element being checked, add 1 to frequency

         currentFrequency++; 
      }
    }
    if (currentFrequency > mostCommonFrequency) {
      mostCommon = array.get(i);      // replaces current mode if new most common element
      mostCommonFrequency = currentFrequency;
    }
  }
  return mostCommon;  // can also be modified to return the frequency
}

Determining If All Values Have a Certain Property

/** Determines whether all values are even
*/
public static boolean isEven(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
//Assume all values are positive first
  for (int number: array) {
    if (number % 2 == 1) { //If there is one value that is not positive, return false
      return false;
    }
  }
  return true; //No odd numbers were found
}

Accessing All Consecutive Pairs/Triplets/Sequences of Length n of Elements

/** Returns all consecutive sequences of length n in the ArrayList
*/
public static void returnAllConsecutiveSequences(ArrayList<Integer> array, int length) {
  for (int i = 0; i <= array.size() - length; i++) {
    for (int j = 0; j < length; j++) {

      //2 loops, one to get the starting number the other to go through the sequences
      System.out.print(array.get(i+j) + " "); 
    }                                     
    System.out.println();
  }
}

Checking if There are Duplicate Elements

/** Checks to see if there are duplicate elements
*/
public static boolean duplicates(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  for (int i = 0; i < array.size() - 1; i++) { //traverse through the ArrayList
    for (int j = i + 1; j < array.size(); j++) { //traverse through rest of ArrayList
      if (array.get(j) == array.get(i)) {

        // if any element matches current element being checked, return true
        return true;
      }
    }
  }
  return false;                         // if this point reached, no duplicates found
}

Determining How Many Elements Fit a Criteria

/** Returns how many even numbers there are
*/
public static int evenFrequency(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  int numberEven = 0;
  for (int number: array) {
    if (number % 2 == 0) {
      numberEven++; // increments every time an even integer is found
    }
  }
  return numberEven;
}

Shifting Elements One Index Left

/** Shifts Elements One Index to the Left
*/
public static ArrayList<Integer> shiftLeft(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  int firstItem = array.get(0)
  for (int i = 0; i < array.size() - 1; i++) {
    array.set(i, array.get(i+1)); // Does the shifting
  }
  array.set(array.size() - 1, firstItem)
  return array;
}

Shifting Elements One Index Right

/** Shifts Elements One Index to the Right
*/
public static ArrayList<Integer> shiftRight(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  int lastItem = array.get(array.size()- 1)
  for (int i = array.size() - 1; i > 0; i--) {
    array.set(i, array.get(i-1)); // Does the shifting
  }
  array.set(0, lastItem);
  return array;
}

Reversing an Array

/** Reverses the ArrayList
*/
public static ArrayList<Integer> reverse(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  ArrayList<Integer> newArray = new ArrayList<Integer>();
  for (int i = 0; i < array.size(); i++) {

    // places the items in the new ArrayList in opposite order of the original
    newArray.add(array.get(array.size() - i - 1)); 
  }
  return newArray;
}

Putting Items from an ArrayList into an Array

/** Transfers all ArrayList items into an Array
*/
public static int[] arrayListToArray(ArrayList<Integer> array) {
  int[] newArray = new int[array.size()];
  for (int i = 0; i < array.size(); i++) {
    newArray[i] = array.get(i);
  }
  return newArray;
}

Putting Items from an Array into an ArrayList

/** Transfers all Array items into an ArrayList
*/
public static ArrayList<Integer> arrayToArrayList(int[] array) {
  ArrayList<Integer> newArray = new ArrayList<Integer>();
  for (int i: array) {
    newArray.add(i);
  }
  return newArray;
}

Browse Study Guides By Unit

➕Unit 1 – Primitive Types

📱Unit 2 – Using Objects

🖥Unit 3 – Boolean Expressions & if Statements

🕹Unit 4 – Iteration

⚙️Unit 5 – Writing Classes

⌚️Unit 6 – Array

💾Unit 7 – ArrayList

7.0Unit 7 Overview: ArrayList

7.1Introduction to ArrayList

7.2ArrayList Methods

7.3Traversing ArrayLists