I want to check which word is the shortest, and I get the right answer when word2 or word3 is the shortest, but not word1. This also might be because I set the shortest as word1.length to begin with, but it may be because I’m returning numbers when I want to return values. Here’s my code:
function findShortestOfThreeWords(word1, word2, word3) {
var newArr = [word1, word2, word3]
var shortest = word1.length // shortest is the length of word1 (which is a number). I'm setting shortest to word1.length to start off with
for (var i = 0; i < newArr.length; i++) { // loop over newArr
if (newArr[i].length < shortest) { //if newArr[i]'s length (which is a number) is shorter than shortest
shortest = newArr[i] // shortest now becomes newArr[i] (which is NOT a number)
}
}
return shortest // return shortest
}
findShortestOfThreeWords('Hi', 'Hey', 'Hello')
.length returns a number - that number is the length of the string or object you’ve applied .length to.
In your function, you declare and initialise shortest as word1.length - so it starts out as a number. Let’s say… 5, for example purposes. Then, you loop through the array of words, checking the length of each. If that length value is less than shortest, you assign the word to shortest - now you’ve changed shortest from a number to a string.
In the end, you return shortest, which may either be a string or a number depending on whether your if statement runs.
There are two errors in your code:
If the shortest word is word1, you are returning the length.
If word2 is shorter than word1, but word3 is shorter than word2, you still return word2. This is because word2 gets assigned to shortest, and newArr[i].length < shortest cannot evaluate to true (as shortest is now a string.)
You need to ensure you are comparing the same types of value with every loop iteration.
If you’re going to compare newArr[i].length to shortest, then shortest should always be a number.
But if you want shortest to be a word, you can compare the lengths instead
