[FIXED] How can I identify the lowest number in a group of strings?

Issue

I am trying to write a program that can identify which delivery driver has the lowest current delivery load.

The drivers name, location and current delivery load are in this format:

Wesley Smith, London, 4

Mark Hammond, London, 2

Abul Ali, London, 12

Ned Cayhill, London, 6

I am trying to write a program that can identify that Mark Hammond (in this instance) has the lowest load and then that entire string will be assigned to a new variable.

I have tried taking the last character (the current delivery load) from all the strings and comparing them all but then I lose a way of reconnecting that number back to its original driver.

Here is the code I have written so far (edited)

ArrayList<String> matchedDrivers = new ArrayList<String>();
ArrayList<Integer> deliveries = new ArrayList<String>();

matchedDrivers.add("Wesley Smith, London, 4");
matchedDrivers.add("Mark Hammond, London, 2");
matchedDrivers.add("Abul Ali, London, 12");
matchedDrivers.add("Ned Cayhill, London, 6");

for(int i = 0;i<matchedDrivers.size();i++) 
{
  String mDriver = matchedDrivers.get(i);
  
  String load = mDriver.substring(mDriver.lastIndexOf(",") + 1);
  int intLoad = Integer.parseInt(load)
  deliveries.add(intLoad);
}

Integer max = Collections.max(deliveries);

System.out.println(max);

Thanks in advance!

Solution

You can iterate through the entire list and keep a variable which keeps track of the minimum that have been encountered and a variable name that keeps track of the person who has the minimum value .

To extract the minimum from the list, you can use split function of String class and then get the integer value using Integer.parseInt

class Main {
    public static void main(String args[]) {

        List<String> r = new ArrayList<>();
        r.add("Wesley Smith, London, 4");
        r.add("Mark Hammond, London, 2");
        r.add("Abul Ali, London,12");
        String driver = findLowestLoad(r);
        System.out.println(driver);
    }

    private static String findLowestLoad(List<String> r) {
        int min = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
        String name = "";
        for (int i = 0; i < r.size(); i++) {
            int delValue = Integer.parseInt(r.get(i).split(",")[2].trim());
            if (delValue < min) {
                min = delValue;
                name = r.get(i).split(",")[0];
            }
        }
        return name;
    }

}

and the output is

Mark Hammond

Answered By - Gurkirat Singh Guliani
Answer Checked By - Marie Seifert (JavaFixing Admin)