How do I get my logic in this Java program to make my loop work?

Question

I've made this java program to find the two smallest integers as inputted by the user. I think I'm pretty much just about there except there is one issue with my logic. I'm not sure what to set values:

   int min, min2;

to where the rest of my program would work. I've tried -1 and 0 and it will just come out at the end as both my smallest and second smallest.

public class TwoSmall
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
    int input;

    System.out.println("Enter you numbers: ");
    input = IO.readInt();
    int min = 0;
    int min2 = 0;

    while (input >= 0)
    {
        if (input < min)
        {
            min2 = min;
            min = input;
        }
        else if (input < min2)
        {
            min2 = input;
        }
        input = IO.readInt();
    }

    System.out.println("The lowest number was " + min 
                         + " and the second lowest is " + min2);



    }
}

Answer 1

Try setting min and min2 to Integer.MAX_VALUE . Practically this should solve your problem because the data type of integers you are working with is int . But theoretically, setting min and min2 to the first input value is the correct solution.

EDIT: As a matter of fact, I see that you input the first value separately. Hence the correct solution is as below:

public class TwoSmall
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        int input;

        System.out.println("Enter you numbers: ");
        input = IO.readInt();
        int min = input;
        int min2 = input;

        while (input >= 0)
        {
            numInputsGreaterThan1 = true;
            if (input < min)
            {
                min2 = min;
                min = input;
            }
            else if (input < min2)
            {
                min2 = input;
            }
            input = IO.readInt();
        }

        System.out.println("The lowest number was " + min 
                         + " and the second lowest is " + min2);
     }
}

Note that in case, only a single integer is input, the value of min and min2 printed will be the same.