Vector with a twist

Question

Hello all,
The problem i am having is trying to get the index number for my
setElementAt.
This is what is happening...
A person will enter an employee number (i.e 100)
and name
What i need to get is the actual number "1" as a int
Once i get that then i will do it like this...
employee.setElementAt(employee, here is where that "1" goes in)
and if they enter 200...
employee.setElementAt(employee, here is where the "2" goes in)
remember, the index has to be a number.
I know some of you may be asking "hastable or list array"
Well, i cant use those, sorry.

Answer 1

You could this code to get the index:
int getIndex(int value)
int divideBy = 10;
int newValue = 0;
int processValue = value;
while(true)
  if(processValue < 10)
   //if the value is less than 10, u get ur index without any processing
   return Math.abs(processValue); //taking care of -ve vals
  else
   newValue = (int) processValue / divideBy;
   if(newValue < 10)
    //got the index.
    return Math.abs(newValue);
   else
    //process further
    newValue = processValue;
    continue;
return Math.abs(value);
}Very crude implementation, without any performance implications etc.
But i guess, should work. U could improve on it further.
-Manish.