Thread: Linear Search in an array

I'm trying to run this code to find the key in the array
If the element is not 5 it is supposed to return a -1
The code runs but doesn't return anything. What am I doing wrong?

public class Search{

public static void main(String[] args){

int[] list = new int [5];
list[0] = 1;
list[1] = 2;
list[2] = 3;
list[3] = 4;
list[4] = 5;

int key = 5;

linearSearch(list, key);
}

public static int linearSearch(int [] list, int key) {
for(int i = 0; i < list.length; i ++){
if (key == list [i])
return i;
}
return -1;

}

}

Please read the Announcement topic at the top of the sub-Forum to learn how to post code correctly and ask good questions.

You don't do anything with the value that is returned. You can print it, assign it to a value, etc. Right now, the method completes, returns a value, and nothing is done with it.

How do I return the - 1 to show in the main?

Replace the last line in the main() method with:

System.out.println( linearSearch(list, key) );