PSET3 Runoff print winner not working

Question

I am working on the print function for Runoff and I keep getting the response

"The winner is: (null)"

I guess at this point I can't tell if the tabulate function isn't working or if print isn't working. Does anyone see an obvious fault with this code?

// Print the winner of the election, if there is one
bool print_winner(void)
{
    int max=0; //holds the highest value found in candidates.vote

    for (int i=0;i<candidate_count; i++)
    {
        max=candidates[i].votes; //holds the highest value found in candidates.vote

        if(candidates[i].votes<candidates[i+1].votes)
        {
            max=candidates[i+1].votes;
        }
    }

    if(max>(voter_count*.5)).
        {
            printf("the winner is:%s\n", candidates[max].name);
            return true;
        }
    return false;
}

Thanks, Rob

EDIT. I have changed my function to accept a datastruct candidate for swaping usage and that appears to be going well. I am able to sort the candidates by vote count (verified by printf). The tie is still confounding me. If I have a clear winner, either unanimous or split but more then half, I print the winner is. If I have a tie, the program enters a loop that it doesn't come out of. printf tells me its reading the tie, but the if statement isn't in a loop. any thoughts here to help?

bool print_winner(void)
{
    candidate swap={0,0,false};
    int cc = candidate_count;

    for (int i=0;i<cc; i++)
    {
        for(int j=0; j<cc-1; j++)
        {
        if(candidates[j].votes>candidates[j+1].votes)
            {
            swap=candidates[j];
            candidates[j]=candidates[j+1];
            candidates[j+1]=swap;
            }
        }

    printf("%s ", candidates[i].name);
    printf("%i", candidates[i].votes);
    printf("\n");

    }

    if(candidates[cc-1].votes>(voter_count*.5))
    {
        printf("The winner is: %s\n",candidates[cc-1].name);
        printf("number of votes: %i\n,", candidates[cc-1].votes);
        return true;
    }
    if(candidates[cc-1].votes==candidates[cc-2].votes)
    {
        printf("tie");
        return false;
    }

    return false;

}

Thanks in advance for any help. Rob

Answer 1

Results of this code would be unpredictable. It looks like max holds the maximum number of votes, but then the code uses that maximum number of votes to select the candidate. Unfortunately, max doesn't contain the array index of the candidate that had the most votes.

In other words, say that candidate smith is in candidates[3] and was the highest vote getter with 35 votes. The code stores 35 in max and then tries to print candidates[35].name. Do you see the problem there?

BTW, what if there was a tie?

Also, if a library function call, like printf, doesn't appear to be working, you should assume that you've written something wrong. Library functions are well tested and have worked millions of times over. Finding a software bug in a standard library function is about as rare as finding a Unicorn or a mermaid! ;-)

If this answers your question, please click on the check mark to accept. Let's keep up on forum maintenance. ;-)