Certainly! Let's break this task into smaller steps:
1. Define the method signature.
2. Find the minimum and maximum value in the array.
3. Compute the positive difference between maximum and minimum.
4. Return this value.
Now, let's write the method in Java:
```java
public class ArrayUtils {
public static int range(int[] array) {
// Step 2: Find the minimum and maximum value in the array.
// If the array is empty or null, we return 0 as range doesn't make sense in such cases
if (array == null || array.length == 0) {
return 0;
}
int minValue = array[0];
int maxValue = array[0];
// Iterate through the array to find the minimum and maximum values
for (int i = 1; i < array.length; i++) {
if (array[i] < minValue) {
minValue = array[i];
} else if (array[i] > maxValue) {
maxValue = array[i];
}
}
// Step 3: Compute the positive difference
int range = maxValue - minValue;
// Step 4: Return the positive difference
return range;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
int[] array = {5, 2, 9, 1, 5, 6};
System.out.println("Range: " + ArrayUtils.range(array)); // Output: 8
}
}
```
Now let's explain each part:
1. `public static int range(int[] array)` - This is the method signature. It's `public` so it can be accessed from outside the class. It's `static` meaning you don't need an instance of the class to use this method. It takes an array of integers as its only parameter and returns an integer.
2. Inside the method, first, we check if the input array is `null` or empty. If it is, we return 0, as it doesn't make sense to calculate the range in such cases.
3. We initialize `minValue` and `maxValue` with the first element of the array. Then, we iterate through the array to find the minimum and maximum values.
4. The range is the positive difference between the maximum and minimum values, so we subtract the minimum value from the maximum value (`maxValue - minValue`) and store it in a variable called `range`.
5. Finally, we return the `range`.
6. The `main` method is just a driver to test our range method. It creates an array of integers and prints out the range by calling the `range` method.
This method effectively computes the range of an array by iterating through its elements once, which makes it efficient and its time complexity is O(n), where n is the number of elements in the array.