Finding the index of a character in an array

[Maksym Trojanowski]

Yes, like the subject says: How do i get the index of a character in an array? Help would be appreciated XD
given that this is the array. How would i find the index of 'm' for example?

char[] array1 = {'a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j','k','l','m','n','o','p','q','r','s','t','u','v','w','x','y','z'};

[Greg Brannon]

Do you have any guesses? How do you do it in your head or with a piece of paper and a pencil? Can you describe that process and then program it?

[Maneesh Godbole]

And remember the indices do not start with 1 ;)

[dennis deems]

Hint: there is a long way and a short way. But the long way is more fun.

[Maksym Trojanowski]

Greg Brannon wrote:Do you have any guesses? How do you do it in your head or with a piece of paper and a pencil? Can you describe that process and then program it?

well this is my program so far

public class Chapter12_9
{
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		EasyReader console = new EasyReader();
		System.out.print("Enter a word to find it's SCRABBLE point value: ");
		String word = console.readLine();
		int score = computeScore(word);
		System.out.print(score);
	}

	public static int computeScore(String word)
	{
		char[] array1 = {'a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j','k','l','m','n','o','p','q','r','s','t','u','v','w','x','y','z'};
		int[] array2 = {  1,  3,  3,  2,  1,  4,  2,  4,  1,  8,  5,  1,  3,  1,  3,  3,  10, 1,  1,  1,  1,  4,  4,  8,  4,  10};
		int a = 0;

		for (int x = 0; x <= word.length() - 1; x++)
		{
			char y = word.charAt(x);
			int z = array1.indexOf(y);
			int q = array2[z];
			a = a + q;
		}
		return a;

		}
	}

The problem is at line 21, i just don't know the thingie to call the character in the array. This is basically a program that adds up the letter scores of a SCRABBLE word and don't worry about the EasyReader thing

[Greg Brannon]

Context is always helpful. There are many ways (I'm not going to count them) to do this problem, but starting with a char[] array may not be at the top of my list. Do you have to use a char[] array? Did you consider just using a String = "abcdefg......z" with its available methods? Or, even better (some would say), a HashMap or other collection that returns a value for an input?

[Maksym Trojanowski]

Greg Brannon wrote:Context is always helpful. There are many ways (I'm not going to count them) to do this problem, but starting with a char[] array may not be at the top of my list. Do you have to use a char[] array? Did you consider just using a String = "abcdefg......z" with its available methods? Or, even better (some would say), a HashMap or other collection that returns a value for an input?

Never mid you are a genius. I don't know why i didn't think of it first

[Greg Brannon]

Okay, easy enough.

So you'll have to write your own public static int indexOf( char y ) method. How that goes, roughly, is you compare each element of the char[] array at a time to the desired character, y, in a loop that iterates 0 - the length of the array, and when you find a match, you return the value of the loop's index variable.

(That was the kind of answer I was hoping to get to my first question.)

Can you code that?

[Greg Brannon]

Maksym Trojanowski wrote:

Greg Brannon wrote:Context is always helpful. There are many ways (I'm not going to count them) to do this problem, but starting with a char[] array may not be at the top of my list. Do you have to use a char[] array? Did you consider just using a String = "abcdefg......z" with its available methods? Or, even better (some would say), a HashMap or other collection that returns a value for an input?

Never mid you are a genius. I don't know why i didn't think of it first

Not sure what I did to deserve that, but let's part to meet another time as friends. Good luck.

[Maksym Trojanowski]

Greg Brannon wrote:Okay, easy enough.

So you'll have to write your own public static int indexOf( char y ) method. How that goes, roughly, is you compare each element of the char[] array at a time to the desired character, y, in a loop that iterates 0 - the length of the array, and when you find a match, you return the value of the loop's index variable.

(That was the kind of answer I was hoping to get to my first question.)

Can you code that?

I will know that for next time, and yes i can XD

[Campbell Ritchie]

I would disagree. There is no need to seek the index of 'q' in that array. Remember that a char is not a letter, but a number, so you can find the index easily by doing arithmetic on the chars.