Efficiently Looping through Object array with Multiple Variable types in Java

Question

I'm writing a simple script in Java that is calling another class that holds all my information.

I am holding my information in the called class in Object[] Arrays and I am planning on calling the script to fetch that array.

Right now the function looks like this.

public void tradeShop() {

    /*
     *Variables must be initialized in order to call shopTrader
     *The values are just non-null placeholders and they are 
     *replaced with the same values in the tradeValues Object array.
     */
    String targetName = "NPC Name";
    String itemName = "Item Name";
    int itemQuantity = 1;
    int minCoins = 1;
    int minBuy = 1;
    boolean stackable = false;

    Object[] tradeValues = shop.defaultValues;

    for (int i = 0; i < tradeValues.length; i++) {
        if(String.class.isInstance(tradeValues[i])) {//String check
            if(i==0) { //0 is NPC Name
                targetName = (String) tradeValues[i];
            } else if (i==1) { //1 is Item Name
                itemName = (String) tradeValues[i];
            }
        } else if (Integer.class.isInstance(tradeValues[i])) { //Int check
            if(i==2) { //2 is Item Quantity
                itemQuantity = (Integer) tradeValues[i];
            } else if (i==3) { //3 is Minimum coins
                minCoins = (Integer) tradeValues[i];
            } else if (i==4) { //4 is the Minimum Buy limit
                minBuy = (Integer) tradeValues[i];
            }
        } else if (Boolean.class.isInstance(tradeValues[i])) { //Bool check
                stackable = (Boolean) tradeValues[i]; //5 is the item Stackable 
        } else {
            //TODO: Implement exception
        }
    }

    //Calls ShopTrader() method shopTrader
    ShopTrader trade = new ShopTrader();
    trade.shopTrader(targetName, itemName, itemQuantity, minCoins, minBuy, worldHop, stackable);
}

I feel like using a for loop like this is not the correct way for me to be looping through these Objects, I shouldn't have to check i== for each variable.

Also it hinders me from adding overloads to the shopTrader method as I would have to write an entirely new for loop for each overload.

Does anyone have a more elegant solution for getting the variables from this array?

Answer 1

I think that instead of storing all of your information in Object[], you may want to create a new class to act as a data structure ie

public class TradeValue {
    String targetName;
    int itemQuantity;
    // etc.

    String getTargetName() {
        return targetName;
    }

    String getItemQuantity() {
        return itemQuantity;
    }
    // etc
}

You can then just access the information directly

TradeValue defaultValues = shop.defaultValues;
String targetName = defaultValues.getTargetName();
int itemQuantity = defaultValues. getItemQuantity();
...