Java Function to Calculate Statistical Mode

I looked everywhere on the web to find a java function to calculate the mode of an array of primitive ints. This will work for floats and long ints too, I suppose.

Anyway, since it was impossible to find, I figured I would post it here so maybe someone else can benefit.

public int calcMode(int[] sourceArray) {
	int mode = 0;	    
	Arrays.sort(sourceArray);	
	int[] valCounts = new int[(sourceArray.length-1)];
	for(int val:sourceArray) valCounts[val]++;
	int i = 0;			
	while(i < valCounts.length) {
		if(valCounts[i] >= valCounts[mode]) mode = i;
		i++;
	}
	return mode;
}

Hope this helps someone!

2 Comments | 6922 days old | Direct Link

Reid

Take another look...

Hate to say it, but this method is deeply flawed. Consider these scenarios:

1. What if given the set [1,1,3,5,5]? What is the "actual" mode, and what does your method return?

2. What if given the set [1,2,3000000]? What happens to your valCounts array when you say "valCounts[val]++"? This may not break the method, but it's almost certainly not when you intended...because you're later going to loop over a very large array.

Back to the drawing board...

Marty

Good Call

Thanks for your observation! I will definitely have to give this a little more thought.

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