In C++, write a method called enumerate that returns the number of strings in the array that are equal to the target string

Question

int enumerate(const string a[], int n, string target);Return the number of strings in the array that are equal to target. If n is negative, the function returns −1.

string d[9] = {
    "charlie", "november", "alpha", "alpha", "kilo", "kilo", "kilo", "alpha", "alpha"
};
int i = enumerate(d, 9, "alpha");     // returns 4
int j = enumerate(d, 5, "kilo"); // returns 1
int k = enumerate(d, 9, "bravo");   // returns 0

Solution

int enumerate(const string a[], int n, string target){
int countMatchingStrings = 0;
for(unsigned int i = 0; i < n; i++){
if (a[i]==target){
countMatchingStrings++;
}
}
//if found none, return 0
if (countMatchingStrings == 0){
return 0;
} else {
return countMatchingStrings;
}
}

Explanation

Declare a counter outside of the for loop that will increase by 1 whenever the target string has been found inside the array. If the target string is found in the iteration, add 1 to the counter. Once the for loop has been finished iterating, return 0 if the countMatchingStrings equals to 0, else return the number of matches found in the array.