How to Print the First and Last Elements of an Array in Java and C

The ability to access and print specific elements within an array is a fundamental concept in programming. This article will guide you through the process of printing the first and last elements of an array in both Java and C. We will demonstrate this with concrete examples and code snippets for clarity.

Before diving into the code, it's important to understand what an array is. An array in programming is a collection of elements of the same data type stored in a contiguous block of memory. Each element can be individually selected by specifying its index.

In Java, arrays are objects that can be manipulated in various ways. Here’s how you can declare an array, initialize it, and print the first and last elements:

class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int[] a  {34, 67, 128, 990};  // Initialize the array
        ("First element: "   a[0]);   // Print the first element
        ("Last element: "   a[a.length - 1]); // Print the last element
    }
}

The output for this code would be:

First element: 34
Last element: 990

The array declaration int[] a {34, 67, 128, 990}; initializes the array with the provided values. The first element is accessed through a[0], and the last element is accessed through a[a.length - 1]. This is because array indices in Java start from 0. It's also important to note that the length of the array can be obtained using a.length.

In C, arrays are also stored in contiguous memory blocks, but the process of displaying the first and last elements is a bit more manual. Here’s how you can achieve this:

#include stdio.h
int main() {
    int arr[]  {34, 67, 128, 990};  // Initialize the array
    int n  sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]);  // Calculate the number of elements in the array
    printf("First element: %d
", arr[0]);  // Print the first element
    printf("Last element: %d
", arr[n - 1]);  // Print the last element
    return 0;
}

In this C code, the size of the array is calculated using sizeof(arr) / sizeof(arr[0]), which divides the total size of the array by the size of a single element to get the number of elements. The first element is accessed through arr[0], and the last element is accessed through arr[n - 1]. Be cautious of out-of-bound accesses, as C does not automatically handle exceptions for such errors.

Since the original requirements were for Java and C, here’s a brief reference on how you would do this in C :

#include iostream
int main() {
    int arr[]  {34, 67, 128, 990};  // Initialize the array
    std::cout 

The logic is similar to the C implementation, with the use of std::cout for output in C .

Accessing specific elements in an array is a common task across different programming languages. Whether you work with Java, C, or C , understanding how to retrieve and print the first and last elements can be valuable in a multitude of scenarios. Demonstrating this in code snippets helps clarify the process and provides a solid foundation for more complex operations.

Java Arrays Array Elements C Programming