Homework - Beginner Problem: choosing a highest score

Hello anyone,

This is my first post and I would like to one day be able to help others with their programming needs. I am just beginning and have a quick and probably very easy problem.

The task is to create a scanner program that takes 3 quiz score inputs. For one of my methods I must write some code that chooses the HIGHEST score of the 3 no matter what the inputs are.

Right not the method looks like this:

public void highestquiz () {

if (quizScore1 > quizScore2) {
highestScore = quizScore1;
}
else if (quizScore1 > quizScore3){
highestScore = quizScore1;
}

if (quizScore2 > quizScore1) {
highestScore = quizScore2;
}
else if (quizScore2 > quizScore3){
highestScore = quizScore2;
}
if (quizScore3 > quizScore1) {
highestScore = quizScore3;
}
else if (quizScore3 > quizScore2) {
highestScore = quizScore3;
}

} //end highestscore

The program is compiling and running with this as my code, but it seems to choose a score at random to designate which was the highest. I figrue what I typed above was a bit long and tedious to those more experienced than I =)

Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi,

please use [ CODE ] tags to make the code readable.

The problem is that you overwrite the intermediate results. Say you have the numbers 5, 2, 1. Since quizScore1 > quizScore2, you get highestScore = 5 in the first "if" statement. However, in the second statement you have quizScore2 > quizScore3, so highestScore is changed to 2 (and that's the final value).

You'd need to have a single "if-else-if-else-if..." statement.

But you can simplify a code a lot if you first assume quizScore1 to be the highest value and then check each value if it's greater:



And a more intelligent (and object-oriented) approach would consist of defining a "max" method and using that:



Of course Java already has such a method built-in (Math.max), but I guess you're not supposed to use that?

Also posted at http://www.javaprogrammingforums.com/whats-wrong-my-code/23786-beginner-problem-choosing-highest-value-3-inputs.html