Array elements

[Renegadeandy]

Hi!

I am new here - and i signed up as i am at University studying computer science and need help with Java programming tasks.

Any help will be appreciated. - I have a firm knowledge of basic concepts in Java.

My task today is to build a method which will detect wether a given element is present within an array starting

public boolean contains(Object [] a, Object x)

and it will return true if and only if there is an element y in such that x.equals(y) returns true.

Can you guys with me a bit of help with this.

Thanks very much - Andy
I learn best via example - which is why i have posted the question.

[dreamz]

here u go:

public class TestObj {
  public static void main (String [] args)throws Exception{
	  a ob0 = new a("a","b");
	  a ob1 = new a("c","d");
	  a ob2 = new a("e","f");
	  a ob3 = new a("g","h");
	  a ob4 = new a("i","j");
	  a ob5 = new a("k","l");
	  a ob6 = new a("m","n");
	  a ob7 = new a("d","f");
	  
	  Object [] objArray = {ob0, ob1,ob2,ob3,ob4,ob5,ob6,ob7};
	  System.out.println(contains(objArray,ob0));
	  
  	}
	 public static boolean contains(Object [] a, Object x) {
		 boolean rvalue = false;
		 for(int i = 0; i < a.length ; i++){
			 if(a[i].equals(x)){
				 rvalue = true;
				 break;
			 }
		 }
		 return rvalue;
	 }
}

But remember you might have to override the equal methods for your objects to work properly.....i.e. how are the two objects Comparable, on what attributes ????
example:

class a{
	String fname="bla";
	String lname="bloo";
	public a(){
		this.fname = "";
	    this.lname = "";
	}
	
	public a(String fname, String lname){
		this.fname = fname;
		this.lname = lname;
		
	}
	public boolean equals(Object obj){
		if(this.fname.equals(((a)obj).fname) && this.lname.equals(((a)obj).lname) )
				return true;
		else return false;
	}
}

good luck