Java method: Finding object in array list given a known attribute value

Question

I have a couple of questions actually.

I have a class Dog with the following instance fields:

private int id;
private int id_mother;         


        

Answer 1

I was interested to see that the original poster used a style that avoided early exits. Single Entry; Single Exit (SESE) is an interesting style that I've not really explored. It's late and I've got a bottle of cider, so I've written a solution (not tested) without an early exit.

I should have used an iterator. Unfortunately java.util.Iterator has a side-effect in the get method. (I don't like the Iterator design due to its exception ramifications.)

private Dog findDog(int id) {
    int i = 0;
    for (; i!=dogs.length() && dogs.get(i).getID()!=id; ++i) {
        ;
    }

    return i!=dogs.length() ? dogs.get(i) : null;
}

Note the duplication of the i!=dogs.length() expression (could have chosen dogs.get(i).getID()!=id).