Printing the Min. Gap between numbers in an array error? Where do I put the return statement?

Question

I need to return the minimum gap between numbers in an array. Gap as in, if a[2] = 3, and a[3] = 6, the gap would be 3. I need to put the return statement elsewhere but I don't know where to put it because then the smallestGap would not be accessible. a stands for the array you would put in. I don't have a full class because this problem is on practice-it.

This is what I have so far:

 public static int minGap(int[] a){
    for(int i = 0; i < a.length; i++){
        int smallestGap = a[i+ 1] - a[i];
        int gap = a[i+1] - a[i];

    if(gap < smallestGap){
        smallestGap = gap;
        return smallestGap;
    }  
    }
    //if array has less than two elements return 0
}

Thank you.

Answer 1

I don't get your problem exactly. Start from a smallestGap defined as larger than any other possible gap, so you can then return it. Eg:

int smallestGap = Integer.MAX_VALUE;

for (int i = 0; i < a.length - 1; ++i) {
  int gap = a[i+1] - a[i];
  smallestGap = Math.min(gap, smallestGap);
}

return smallestGap;