How to find the smallest difference between consecutive numbers?

March 1, 2022

I am absolutely brain-dead with this homework problem:

Print the absolute value of the smallest-magnitude difference between two consecutive integers.

My code is:

import java.io.NotSerializableException;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class Code {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
        // Read input for the test cases
        int N = scanner.nextInt();
        
        int[] killme = new int[N];
        int[] ints = new int[N];
         
        for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
            ints[i] = scanner.nextInt();
        }
       
        int smallestDifference = Integer.MIN_VALUE;

        // Your code here
        for (int a = 0; a  < N - 1; a++) {

           killme[a] = ints[a] - ints[a + 1];

           for (int b = 1; b < killme.length; b+=1) {

            if(killme[b] < smallestDifference)
            smallestDifference = ints[a];
        }
            
            }
            

        
        System.out.println("The smallest difference between consecutive integers is " + Math.abs(smallestDifference));
    }
}

Edit: The first issue has been resolved, but I am not receiving the desired outputs. For example when I input the array:

500 400 450 600 1000

I receive the output:

But the correct output is

>Solution :

Yes you must be running into an infinite loop because of this…

for (int b = 1; b < killme.length; a+=1)

Here you are updating the value of the variable a whereas in the condition you are checking, you are using variable b so variable b is never changed. Thus make the change

for (int b = 1; b < killme.length; b+=1)

Hope this works…

Well I got the answer for your second problem as well… No need of using killme variable. Use this:

int smallestDifference = Math.abs(ints[1] - ints[0]);  // Math.abs so that it does not give you negative value...
for(int a = 0; a < N - 1; a++){
    smallestDifference = (Math.abs(ints[a] - ints[a+1]) < smallestDifference) ? Math.abs(ints[a] - ints[a+1]) : smallestDifference;
}

This shall work for you…