For Loop with two variables

Question

Is it illegal to set j = i in the second for loop? It seems to work for the first iteration, however, after that it doesnt print anything, is there a more appropriate way to do this? I rewrote it to use a while loop, and it worked perfectly, so whats wrong with the for loop?

public class DaysOfChristmas {
public static void main ( String[] args )
{
    int i,j;
    String day = "";
    String verse = "";

    for ( i = 1; i <= 12; i++)
    {
        switch (i)
        {
            case 1: day = "first";
            break;

            case 2: day = "second";
            break;

            case 3: day = "third";
            break;

            case 4: day = "fourth";
            break;

            case 5: day = "fith";
            break;

            case 6: day = "sixth";
            break;

            case 7: day = "seventh";
            break;

            case 8: day = "eight";
            break;

            case 9: day = "ninth";
            break;

            case 10: day = "tenth";
            break;

            case 11: day = "eleventh";
            break;

            case 12: day = "twelfth";
            break;
        }

        System.out.printf("On the %s day of Christmas my true love gave to me\n", day);

        for ( j = i; j == 1; j--)
        {
            switch (j)
            {
                case 1: verse = "A Partridge in a Pair Tree";
                break;

                case 2: verse = "Two Turtle Doves";
                break;

                case 3: verse = "Three French Hens";
                break;

                case 4: verse = "Four Colly Birds";
                break;

                case 5: verse = "Five Golden Rings";
                break;

                case 6: verse = "Six Geese-a-Laying";
                break;

                case 7: verse = "Seven Swans-a-Swimming";
                break;

                case 8: verse = "Eight Maids-a-Milking";
                break;

                case 9: verse = "Nine Ladies Dancing";
                break;

                case 10: verse = "Ten Lords-a-Leaping";
                break;

                case 11: verse = "Eleven Pipers Piping";
                break;

                case 12: verse = "Twelve Drummers Drumming";
                break;
            }
            System.out.printf("%s ", verse);
        }
        System.out.println();

    }
}

}

Illegal: No! You will never be fined for that! But you might want to consider the logic in your code :) — Sujay
– Sujay, Commented Sep 30, 2012 at 2:50
The comment by @SidMS is correct. In addition, the code would be significantly shorter, easier to read, and less at risk for typos if you used arrays of strings instead of the switch statements. — joel.neely
– joel.neely, Commented Sep 30, 2012 at 3:07

Sidharth Mudgal · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-30 02:58:52Z

4

for ( j = i; j >= 1; j--)

should work. The problem was that the second loop ONLY EXECUTES when j is 1. Otherwise it doesn't execute at all. And j is 1 only the first time when i is 1.

edited Sep 30, 2012 at 2:58

answered Sep 30, 2012 at 2:49

Sidharth Mudgal

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2 Comments

Sujay Over a year ago

+1 for detecting the bug in his code. However it is always a good idea to explain what was wrong with the code before posting a solution to the answer :)

Sidharth Mudgal Over a year ago

I'll keep that in mind when answering questions in future. Thanks!

Makoto · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-30 02:52:00Z

0

It's not illegal to do that. However, consider your condition in the loop:

 for ( j = i; j == 1; j--)

That loop will only ever execute when j is exactly 1. You should definitely rethink your logic here.

answered Sep 30, 2012 at 2:52

Makoto

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