When I'm iterating over two arrays at once, which one do I use as the limit?

coding-style, language-agnostic

Solution

I think I understand your question.

The answer is don't use arrays.

In this case use a map of:

Map<String, Integer> breadCount = new TreeMap<String, Integer>();

breadCount.put("Brown", 0);
breadCount.put("White", 0);
breadCount.put("Sandwich", 0);

Then there's only one "length", which is `breadCount.size()`

Example is in Java

Problem

I'm always struggling with something like the following Java example: ``` String breads[] = {"Brown", "White", "Sandwich"}; int count[] = new int[breads.length]; for (int i = 0; i < ****; i++) { // Prompt the number of breads } ``` `****`: which array.length should I choose? I can choose between `breads.length` and `count.length` I know it would be the same result, but I don't know which one I shoud choose. There are many other examples where I get the same problem. I'm sure that you have encountered this problem as well in the past. What should you choose? Are there general agreements? Thanks

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