Finding the longest string in an array of Strings

Question

The problem with this is that i tried to do it but my method to check the length of the string is not working; what can I do to fix it?

public static void main(String[] args) { 
    String[] animalNames = {"cat", "rabbit", "horse", "goat", "rooster", "ooooooooooooooo"};
    String a= getLongestString(animalNames);
    System.out.println(a);
}

public static String getLongestString(String []animalNames) {
  //  String animalNames[] =  {"cat","chicken","horse","ooooooooo" };

    int j = 0;
    for (j = 0; j <= animalNames.length; j++) {
        if (animalNames[j].length() > animalNames[j + 1].length()) {
                return (animalNames[j]);
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

}

Answer 1

Here. 1. You use j<= animalNames.length;?

2. You compare animalNames[j + 1]? -> error index out of array

3. and you return in the first if condition return (animalNames[j]); -> wrong value

Ok, let me make clear. You find the longest string in an array. You loop over the array then you compare 2 near elements, and then return the bigger one. With your code, it will return the rabbit. Right?

May be you confuse about the process flow. There is a simple way.

1. You assign a variable for the length of the first array element: elementLength = array[0].length; and a value to keep track of the index
2. You loop over the array You check every element with this variable, if bigger then re-assign the element value and update the index.
3. End of the loop. you have the biggest length and the index

Code:

int index = 0; 
int elementLength = array[0].length();
for(int i=1; i< array.length(); i++) {
    if(array[i].length() > elementLength) {
        index = i; elementLength = array[i].length();
    }
}
return array[index];

that is it.