Problem

 array.length

System.out.println ();

Introducing Arrays

Solution

The Solution to this problem is to use a boolean value to say whether or not the arrays are equal. Assume that they are equal at first and initialize you boolean variable to true. Once you have your two int arrays set up in the code the next part is to start finding a solution to the problem. The best way is to start by checking the two lengths of the arrays by doing this:

if (array1.length == array2.length)
{
}
else
  equals = false;

This is done because if the two arrays are not equal in length then the are obviously not equal. By checking this simple property first you save yourself later on from having to check the length of two arrays when iterating through them as well as some computing time. The next step is to actually compare the values of the two arrays together by iterating through them with a loop. The best kind of loop for this task would be a for loop.

for (int i = 0; i < array1.length; i++)
{
  if (array1[i] != array2[i])
    equals = false;
}

By checking previously for the length of our arrays being equal, if the code gets to the loop we only need to use one of the arrays length properties. It doesn't matter which one you use. By inserting this for loop we have just written into our if statement from before we have a simple algorithm to test if two arrays are equal or not. You do a simple if statement at the bottom to print out your result based on the boolean variable equals

Code

Solution Code

public class ArrayEquate
{
  public static void main (String[]args)
  {
    int[] array1 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10};  //First array to be equated
    int[] array2 = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0};   //Second array to be equated
    boolean equal = true;                   //boolean to say whether the arrays are equal or not.
    
    //Check to see if the arrays are equal in lenght, if they are not the arrays can not be equal.
    if (array1.length == array2.length)
    {
      //Use a for loop to iterate through the arrays, comparing their values.
      for (int i = 0; i < array1.length; i++)
      {
        //If there is a mismatch, they are not equal.
        if (array1[i] != array2[i])
          equal = false;
      }
    }
    else
      equal = false;
    
    //Print out the status of the arrays to the console.
    if (equal)
      System.out.println ("The two arrays are equal.");
    else
      System.out.println ("The two arrays are not equal.");
  }
}