Question

Given two ArrayLists of Strings (ArrayList<String>), write a Java method to return the higher count of the characters in each ArrayList.  For example, if list1 has strings (“cat, “dog”, “boat”, “elephant”) and list 2 has strings (“bat”, “mat”, “port”, “stigma”), you will return the value 18.  The list 1 has 18 characters in total for all its strings combined and list2 has 16 characters for all of its strings combined.  The higher value is 18. If the character count is the same, you can return either value (which would be identical).   Empty Arraylist character count would be 0.

public int biggerCharacterCount (ArrayList<String> list1, ArrayList<String> list2) {

}

Answer 1

/*
   * Java method that takes as inputs 2 array list of strings and returns
   * the higher count of the characters from the two ArrayList.
   */
   public int biggerCharacterCount (ArrayList<String> list1, ArrayList<String> list2) {
       // initialize total number of characters in each array list to 0
       int lengthList1 = 0, lengthList2 = 0;
      
       // loop over list1, adding the length of each String to lengthList1
       for(int i=0;i<list1.size();i++)
           lengthList1 += list1.get(i).length();
      
       // loop over list2, adding the length of each String to lengthList2
       for(int i=0;i<list2.size();i++)
           lengthList2 += list2.get(i).length();
      
       // if lengthList1 >= lengthList2, return lengthList1
       if(lengthList1 >= lengthList2)
           return lengthList1;
       else                   // else return lengthList2
           return lengthList2;
   }