ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException - sometimes happens, sometimes don't

[Boreeas]

Hey, I'm new to Java and while doing some training execise, I got the following error (While writing a program that would sort an array of Integers, beginning with the largest value)):

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: -1
at sortarray.Main.swapElements(Main.java:91)
at sortarray.Main.sortArray(Main.java:34)
at sortarray.Main.main(Main.java:19)
Java Result: 1

Now I know what it means - that the index is either < 0 or >= Array.length(). However, the problem is that the code sometimes executer correctly, and then again it doesn't, and I haven't been able to figure out to fix it.

public static void main(String[] args) {

        sortArray(0, 10, 10);
    }

    public static void sortArray(int low, int high, int amount) {

        int[] numbers = randomIntArray(low, high, amount);

        printArray(numbers);

        int i = 0;

        while (i < amount) {

            int indexHigh = indexOfMaxInRange(numbers, low, i);

            swapElements(numbers, indexHigh, i);

            i++;
        }

        printArray(numbers);
    }

    public static int[] randomIntArray(int low, int high, int amount) {

        int[] random = new int[amount];

        int i = 0;
        while(i < amount) {

            random[i] = randomInt(low, high);
            i++;
        }

        return random;

    }

    public static int randomInt(int low, int high) {

        return (int) (Math.round (Math.random() * (high-low) ) +low);
    }

    //Gets the index od the largest integer in a ceratin range (Beginning at low to end)
    public static int indexOfMaxInRange(int[] numbers, int low, int beginIndex) {

        int i = beginIndex;
        int value = low;
        int index = -1;

        while (i<numbers.length) {

            if (numbers[i] > value) {

                value = numbers[i];
                index = i;

            }

            i++;

        }

        return index;

    }

    //Swaps the values at two indices
    public static void swapElements(int[] x, int index1, int index2) {

        // x[index1] gets overwritten, so it gets stored first
        int tempValue = x[index1];

        x[index1] = x[index2];
        x[index2] = tempValue;

    }

    public static void printArray(int[] x) {

        int i = 0;

        while (i < x.length) {

            System.out.println(x[i]);

            i++;
        }

        System.out.println("---------------\n---------------\n---------------");
    }

Thanks for your help!

[pbrockway2]

The error occurs for the first of the reasons you suggest: index is <0. In particular the index is -1.

The stack trace is saying that this is happening in the swapElements() method which is called from the sortArray() method.

The first thing to do is figure out which of the index variables has the value -1. (then you can go on to see where it got that value). You can do this by inspecting sortArray() closely and thinking about it. Or you can use System.out.println():

//Swaps the values at two indices
public static void swapElements(int[] x, int index1, int index2) {
    [color=blue]if(index1 < 0 || index2 < 0) {
        System.out.println("Bad index values! index1=" + index1 + " index2=" + index2);
    }[/color]

    // x[index1] gets overwritten, so it gets stored first
    int tempValue = x[index1];

    x[index1] = x[index2];
    x[index2] = tempValue;

}

[ra4king]

You're doing a couple of things wrong in indexOfMaxInRange(). There is no point in giving "indexOfMaxInRange()" the "low" variable and you don't need a "value" variable. Your mistake was setting "index" to -1. What if it didn't find anything bigger than "value"? All you need is "i" to keep track of the current index and "index" to keep track of index of the biggest value in the array.

public static int indexOfMaxInRange(int numbers[], int beginIndex) {
    int i = beginIndex;
    int index = i;
    
    while(i < numbers.length) {
        if(numbers[i] > numbers[index])
            index = i;
    }
    
    return index;
}

[Boreeas]

Thanks, now it works :)