Simple JUnit tests keep failing and I am not sure why

Question

We were given the assignment to write several methods to help add functionality to a TodoList. One of the methods wanted was one that goes through the TodoList and returns the ones which are still incomplete.

This is what I have written (with other methods omitted):

public class TodoList {
    
    private ArrayList<TodoItem> todoItems;

    public TodoList() {
       todoItems = new ArrayList<TodoItem>();
    }

    public List<TodoItem> filterIncompletes () {
      List<TodoItem> incs = todoItems; *****
      for (int i = 0; i <todoItems.size(); i++) {
        if (todoItems.get(i).isCompleted() == false) {
             incs.add(todoItems.get(i));
        }
      }
      return incs;
    }

I have put asterisks on the line where I believe to be going wrong, although I am not positive. I understand that the method wants a List<TodoItem> returned, I'm just not sure if I have that correctly.

Answer 1

Change

List<TodoItem> incs = todoItems;

to

List<TodoItem> incs = new ArrayList<TodoItem>();

Answer 2

Seems like you want to create a new List to add to. By assigning to the same one as the internal list you are appending to it.