TCHS-3-250

Problem Statement

After selling goods all day, a salesman would like to determine the most desirable item in his inventory. You are given a String[] items, each element of which represents a single item that was sold during the day. Return the item that was sold the most number of times. In case of a tie, return the item that comes first alphabetically.

Definition

Class:	BestSeller
Method:	findBestSeller
Parameters:	String[]
Returns:	String
Method signature:	String findBestSeller(String[] items)
(be sure your method is public)

Constraints

-

items will contain between 1 and 50 elements, inclusive.

-

Each element of items will contain between 1 and 50 characters, inclusive.

-

Each element of items will contain only lowercase letters ('a'-'z').

Examples

0)

{"table", "chair", "table", "table", "lamp", "door", "lamp", "table", "chair"}

Returns: "table"

The salesman sold four "table"s, two "chair"s, two "lamp"s, and one "door". The "table" is his best-selling item.

1)

{"a", "a", "a", "b", "b", "b"}

Returns: "a"

There is a tie between "a" and "b", "a" is returned, because it comes first alphabetically.

2)

{"icecream", "peanuts", "peanuts", "chocolate", "candy", "chocolate", "icecream", "apple"}

Returns: "chocolate"

The salesman sold two of each of these items: "icecream", "peanuts", and "chocolate". Since there is a tie, "chocolate" is returned because it comes first alphabetically. "apple" comes even earlier, but only tied items are considered.

3)

{"soul"}

Returns: "soul"

import java.util.Arrays;

public class BestSeller {

	public static String findBestSeller(String[] items) {
		Arrays.sort(items);
		int max, maxi, count = 1;
		max = maxi = 0;
		for (int i = 1; i < items.length; i++) {
			if (!items[i].equals(items[i-1])) {
				if (count > max) {
					max = count;
					maxi = i - 1;
				}
				count = 1;
			} else
				count++;
		}
		return (count > max) ? items[items.length-1] : items[maxi];
	}

}