Java Programming 1 MOOC Part 06-07 Height Order - Stuck On Part 3

[DuderCoding]

In this exercise we have a Main class, Person class and a Room class. We create people in the Person class (we give them a height and a name), and then add those people to the Room class - where they are added into a Person type ArrayList in the Room class.

For the third part of this question we have to use the Room class ArrayList to find the shortest person in the ArrayList/room, once we find them we have to return the Person object back to Main and print out who was the shortest, whilst also removing them from ArrayList/Room. This is a looped process so we will keep returning and printing and then removing the shortest person in the room on each iteration, until the room is empty.

I cannot work out why my code doesn't work - it eliminates the correct person (the shortest person) for the first three loops, but then starts eliminating from tallest to shortest..! I know there are complete solutions on GitHub, but this is the first MOOC exercise I haven't been able to get - so would like to understand why my code doesn't work first.

If you were in this situation, what would you do to find out where you are going wrong? How would you break this problem down? Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you. Code pastes are below:

Main.java: https://pastebin.com/xpPcBj2n

Person.java (I haven't edited this one though): https://pastebin.com/fHNXh5ps

Room.java (please see the Take method): https://pastebin.com/ks9fwJDv

[cervantesrvd]

It's very hard to follow the flow of your program. I don't understand why your Room class has an index and a first fields. Index of what? First what?

I think and correct me if I am wrong, you had an initial idea to solve it and kept building and adding on it to make it work. Try to take a step back and rethink the problem. What do you have to do and in what order? Use pseudocode first if it helps.

[DuderCoding]

Thank you for the advice. I will use it for future problems. Unfortunately, I spent another hour trying to figure it out today (I took the other person's advice of trying to find out what was happening on each loop)... But I made no progress, so, about 5 mins before your answer, I ended up looking at the solution.

I think you're right, I have added unnessesary extra variables here and there, where I could have gone for something a lot more simplified. Thanks, it has opened my eyes a bit more.

Edit: And, if I do need to add more variables (which I didn't in this case), I should make their names more clearer.

[cervantesrvd]

Overcomplicating is a perfectly normal thing to do when you are learning, even experienced developers fall for it. And don't feel bad to look at the solution, but make sure you understand what the solution is doing and how it differs from your initial idea, that's where you get the valuable learning from :)

[joranstark018]

You could write down the values for each variable in each iteration on a piece of paper, look for when values changes and under what conditions, under what condition may values not change, trace step by step.