Question about function returning array data

Question

var grossBrackets = new Array( '300', '400', '500', '600', '700', '800', '900', '1000' );   
function bracketSort( itemToSort ) {
        for( index = 0 ; index < grossBrackets.length ; index++ ) {
            if ( itemToSort < grossBrackets[index] ) {
                bracketData[index]++;
            } else if ( itemToSort > grossBrackets[7] ) {
                grossBrackets[7]++;
            }
        }
        return bracketData;
    }

This is my current code, and I basically want to sort the data into their proper brackets. My source code is really long, but when I input these numbers into the function:

bracketData prints 5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5 or is there a better way to do this?

Brackets: <300, <400, <500, <600, <700, <800, <900, <1000, greater than 1000

is bracketData a global variable, or should it be locally declared inside the function? — Anurag
– Anurag, Commented Apr 12, 2010 at 2:20

Syntactic · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-12 10:27:09Z

1

If you only want each item to be placed in one bracket, you need to end your loop over grossBrackets once you've found a match. You can do this with the break keyword, like so:

if ( itemToSort < grossBrackets[index] ) {
   bracketData[index]++;
   break;
}

Incidentally, you're checking whether itemToSort is greater than grossBrackets[7] 8 times, one for each element in grossBrackets. You really only need to do this once, so it doesn't need to be in the loop.

edited Apr 12, 2010 at 10:27

answered Apr 12, 2010 at 2:22

Syntactic

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3 Comments

Strawberry Over a year ago

I understood everything except for the part where you said to take it out of the loop. How would you suggest to write it? Wouldn't I need to compare itemToSort with each element of the array to see which bracket it fits in?

Strawberry Over a year ago

Ahh, I see what you are saying. I got it :) Thanks!

Syntactic Over a year ago

Yeah, I'm sure it was confusing because I said "less" when I meant "greater". Fixed.

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