Help with smallest index of an Array!!

[abarnett]

Greetings! I am new to the Daniweb community but hopefully you all can help me out with this problem!

I am to write a c++ function, smallestIndex that takes as parameters int array & its size and returns the index of the smallest element. then I have to write a program to test the function. So here's the code so far:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;
int smallestIndex( int[], int);  // function prototype

void main()
{ 
    int arr[10] = {2,5,6,9,3,7,1,15,12,10};
    int position;

    position = smallestIndex(arr, 10);

	cout << "The smallest Index is: " << position << endl;


}

 int smallestIndex( int arr[], int size)
{
    int smallestIndex=0;
    int temp=arr[0];
	int i;

    for(int i=0;i<size;i++)
    {
       if(arr[i]<temp)
       {
           smallestIndex = i;
                   temp=arr[i];
        }
     }
   return i;
 }

I don't know if the function is correct. Someone on a different forum helped me out with correcting it so Hopefully it's right but I keep getting a warning at first then it says fatal error that variable i hasn't been initialized! SO I don't know. Then I was having trouble figuring out how to get it to output the value but hopefully I've figured that out up there at the top?? Let me know! THanks!!

[zandiago]

Good day and welcome aboard. A few things.
You could use something like this:

int smallestIndex( int arr[], int size)
{
    int smallestIndex=0;
    int temp=arr[0];
    for(int i=0;i<size;i++)
    {
       if(arr[i]<temp)
       {
           smallestIndex = i;
           temp=arr[i];
        }
     }
   return i;
}

Hope that helps.

[Salem]

Perhaps return smallestIndex instead?

> but I keep getting a warning at first then it says fatal error that
> variable i hasn't been initialized!
How many i variables are in your function - I count TWO.
Guess which one you're returning - the uninitialised one.

[abarnett]

alright alright thanks for the info now here's the issue in main I don't think it's returning it correctly

void main()
{ 
    int arr[6] = {2,5,6,9,3,7};
    int position;

    position = smallestIndex(arr, 6);

	cout << "The smallest Index is: " << position << endl;


}

it says the smallest index is 6 which is not true because that stores a 7 in it. so what's wrong w/ that? or am I totally off??

[vijayan121]

you could also
a. make the function const-correct
b. use a size_t instead of an int for the size

size_t smallestIndex( const int arr[], size_t size)
{
    size_t smallestIndex=0;
    int temp=arr[0];
    for(size_t i=1;i<size;i++)
    {
       if(arr[i]<temp)
       {
           smallestIndex = i;
           temp=arr[i];
        }
     }
   return smallestIndex;
}

[abarnett]

thanks for the help! I had some other people in a different community forum helping but yet confusing me all at the same time-I got it figured out!! THANKS!!!

[zandiago]

If you've got the correct answer....and the probelm is solved....please post it for the benefit of the entire community.

[abarnett]

If you've got the correct answer....and the probelm is solved....please post it for the benefit of the entire community.

alright!

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;
int smallestIndex( int[], int);  // function prototype

void main()
{ 
    int arr[6] = {8,5,6,9,3,7};
    int position;

    position = smallestIndex(arr, 6);

	cout << "The smallest Index is: " << position << endl;


}

 int smallestIndex( int arr[], int size)
{
    int smallestIndex=0;
    int temp=arr[0];
	int i;

    for(i=0; i<size; i++)
    {
       if(arr[i]<temp)
       {
           smallestIndex = i;
                   temp=arr[i];
        }
     }
   return smallestIndex;
 }

there it is

[highspeedhook]

Cheers... ! works great

HSH