quick help, if(n == null) error?

[JayP]

Hi I'm trying to find out if theres anything in a array element.

	public static int position(int[] n, int p)
	{
		
		
		if (n[p] != null)
			return n[p];
		else 
			return -1;
		
		
	}

but != null doesn't work, what other ways could I accomplish this? Ultimately I want anything thats outofbounds be -1.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[doWhile]

integer values aren't object, so can't be equated to null. They will be some value, by default in an array 0, so either a) pass an array of object and test for null or b) pass an array with a defined value you can test for to accomplish you needs (no idea what you are trying to accomplish, so this would be based upon the application requirements)

[jing-yi]

Hi Jayp,

I am not sure what you want. I make 2 assumptions,

1) You want to return -1 if n[p] is null, this is impossible as what doWhile have said. However if you change the int to Integer object, then it is possible.

public static int position(Integer[] n, int p)
{
if (n[p] != null)
return n[p];
else
return -1;
}

2) You want the method to return -1 if arrayIndexOutOfBoundsException is thrown, then you need to use the code below.

public static int position(int[] n, int p)
{
try{
return n[p];
}
catch(ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException arrayIndexOutOfBoundsException)
{
return -1;
}
}

Thanks
Jing-yi

[kjkrum]

Returning -1 when something is wrong is not good practice. It doesn't force the caller to handle the error, so the problem does not become evident immediately, and there is no record of where the error originated. This can lead to strange bugs and invalid data being stored. You should throw an exception instead.