Thread: program that determines largest and smallest

Hi, I'm in a beginning java course and I had to write a program that determines the largest and smallest numbers entered by the user. My teacher wanted me to use -99 as the sentinel. I got the program to do what the teacher wanted with the inputs he told us to use however I have some issues with the smallest number if the number entered was more than 500 and the largest number less than zero so I was looking for some help with how to make my program work with all numbers. (keep in mind that I only have a fairly basic knowledge of java)

import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class LargestSmallest
{
   public static void main (String[] args)
   {
      int userNumber;               //user entered number
      int largestSoFar = 0;         //Keeps track of largest number entered
      int smallestSoFar = 500;      //Keeps track of smallest number entered
      final int SENTINEL = -99;  
 
      Scanner keyboard =  new Scanner(System.in);
 
      //Get number from user
      System.out.print("Enter a positive whole number(enter -99 to terminate): ");
      userNumber = keyboard.nextInt();
 
      while (userNumber != SENTINEL)
      {
         if (userNumber > largestSoFar)
            largestSoFar = userNumber;
 
         if (userNumber < smallestSoFar)
            smallestSoFar = userNumber;
 
         System.out.print("Enter a positive whole number(enter -99 to terminate): ");
         userNumber = keyboard.nextInt();
      }  
 
      System.out.println();
      System.out.println("Largest number entered: " + largestSoFar);
      System.out.println("Smallest number entered: " + smallestSoFar);
   }
}

Look in the Math.* methods...

Sorry I am going to rework my solution so it isnt so revealing, I have a bad habit of doing the work for the student

your code so far

      int userNumber;               //user entered number
      int largestSoFar = 0;         //Keeps track of largest number entered
      int smallestSoFar = 500;      //Keeps track of smallest number entered
      final int SENTINEL = -99;  
 
      //Assume user puts int inside userNumber
 
      while (userNumber != SENTINEL)
      {
         if (userNumber > largestSoFar)
            largestSoFar = userNumber;
 
         if (userNumber < smallestSoFar)
            smallestSoFar = userNumber;
 
      //Assume user puts int inside userNumber
      }

so your code does well to continue until the user flags it to stop, and is correct unless someone never enters a number larger then 0 or never smaller then 500.
to fix this, unless your teacher gives you a default value, they have to start uninitialized.

int largestSoFar;
int smallestSoFar;

this brings a new problem that you have to deal with, which is what if the first input is -99! your while loop never gets entered, so you need to think about how to handle that, it seems like a "special case" that an if statement might be up to solving on his own.

Hope this helps,
Jonathan