Lecture 5

Arrays

A way to organize data

What are Arrays?
 An array is a series of compartments to
store data.

 Each compartment is appropriately sized for

the particular data type the array is declared
to store.

 An array can hold only one type of data!

E.g. int[] can hold only integers
char[] can hold only characters
 Array Visualization

Specifies an array of
variables of type int
We are creating
a new array object

int[] primes = new int[10]; // An array of 10 integers

The name of The array object is of

the array type int
and has ten elements index values

primes[0] primes[1] primes[2] primes[3] primes[4] primes[9]

 Declaring an Array Variable

 Array declarations use square brackets.

datatype[] label;

 For example:
int[] prices;
String[] names;
Creating a New "Empty" Array
Use this syntax: new int[20]
 The new keyword creates an array of type
int that has 20 compartments
 The new array can then be assigned to an
array variable:
int[] prices = new int[20];
 When first created as above, the items in the
array are initialized to the zero value of the
datatype
int: 0 double: 0.0 String: null
 Array Indexes

 Every compartment in an array is assigned an

integer reference.

 This number is called the index of the

compartment

 Important: In Java (and most other languages),

the index starts from 0 and ends at n-1, where
n is the size of the array
Accessing Array Elements

 To access an item in an array, type

the name of the array followed by
the item’s index in square brackets.

 For example, the expression:

names[0]
will return the first element in the
names array
Filling an Array

 Assign values to compartments:

prices[0] = 6.75;
prices[1] = 80.43;
prices[2] = 10.02;
 Constructing Arrays

 To construct an array, you can declare a

new empty array and then assign values
to each of the compartments:

String[] names = new String[5];

names[0] = "David";
names[1] = "Qian";
names[2] = "Emina";
names[3] = "Jamal";
names[4] = "Ashenafi";
Another Way to Construct Arrays
 You can also specify all of the items in an
array at its creation.
 Use curly brackets to surround the array’s
data and separate the values with commas:
String[] names = { "David", "Qian",
"Emina", "Jamal", "Ashenafi"};
 Note that all the items must be of the same
type. Here they are of type String.
 Another example:
int[] powers = {0, 1, 10, 100};
Length of array
String[] names = {
"David", "Qian", "Emina",
"Jamal", "Ashenafi" };
int numberOfNames = names.length;
System.out.println(numberOfNames);

Output: 5

 Important: Arrays are always of the same

size: their lengths cannot be changed
once they are created!
Example
String[] names = {
"Aisha", "Tamara", "Gikandi", "Ato", "Lauri"};
for(int i = 0; i < names.length; i++){
System.out.println("Hello " + names[i] + ".");
}

Output:
Hello Aisha.
Hello Tamara.
Hello Gikandi.
Hello Ato.
Hello Lauri.
 Modifying Array Elements
 Example:
names[0] = “Bekele"
 Now the first name in names[] has been
changed from "Aisha" to "Bekele".
 So the expression names[0] now evaluates to
"Bekele".
 Note: The values of compartments can change,
but no new compartments may be added.
Example

int[] fibs = new int[10];

fibs[0] = 1;
fibs[1] = 1;
for(int i = 2; i < fibs.length; i++) {
fibs[i] = fibs[i-2] + fibs[i-1];
}
Note: array indexes can be expressions

 After running this code, the array fibs[]

contains the first ten Fibonacci numbers:
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55
 Exercise 1
 Which of the following sequences of
statements does not create a new array?

a. int[] arr = new int[4];

b. int[] arr;
arr = new int[4];

c. int[] arr = { 1, 2, 3, 4};

d. int[] arr; just declares an array variable

 Exercise 2
 Given this code fragment,
int[] data = new int[10];
System.out.println(data[j]);

 Which of the following is a legal value of j?

a. -1 // out of range
b. 0 // legal value
c. 3.5 // out of range
d. 10 // out of range
 Exercise 3
 Which set of data would not be
suitable for storing in an array?
a. the score for each of the four
quarters of a Football match
b. your name, date of birth, and score
on your physics test // these are different types
c. temperature readings taken every
hour throughout a day
d. your expenses each month for an
entire year
Exercise 4
 What is the value of c after the following
code segment?

int [] a = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};

int [] b = {11, 12, 13};
int [] c = new int[4];
for (int j = 0; j < 3; j++) {
c[j] = a[j] + b[j];
}
c = [12, 14, 16, 0]
 2-Dimensional Arrays

 The arrays we've used so far can be

0 1
thought of as a single row of values.
0 8 4
 A 2-dimensional array can be thought
of as a grid (or matrix) of values
1 9 7
2 3 6
 Each element of the 2-D array is
accessed by providing two indexes: value at row index 2,
a row index and a column index column index 0 is 3

 (A 2-D array is actually just an array of arrays)

 2-D Array Example
 Example:
A landscape grid of a 20 x 55 acre piece of land:
We want to store the height of the land at each
row and each column of the grid.

 We declare a 2D array two sets of square brackets:

double[][] heights = new double[20][55];

 This 2D array has 20 rows and 55 columns

 To access the acre at row index 11 and column index 23

user: heights[11][23]