My 'IF' statent doesn't do what I've it expected to do

Question

I'm trying to have user input where user types a letter and then depends on letter 'IF' statement chooses which fields to display.

What I have now if I type 'p' and 'P' or 'F' or 'f' my 'for' statement still don't understand my input and throws me to 'else' statement.

But why not?

        Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);

        System.out.print("Employee's Last Name: ");
        inputName = scanner.next();
        System.out.print("Employment Status (F or P): ");
        inputStatus = scanner.next();

        if (inputStatus == "F" || inputStatus == "f")
        {
            // some code
        }
        else if(inputStatus == "P" || inputStatus == "p")
        {
            // some code
        }
        else
        {
            System.out.println("I don't understand...");
        }

Not sure, but a good start would be: System.out.println("I don't understand..."); --> System.out.println("I don't understand, I got: " + inputStatus); — Tasos Bitsios, Sep 20 '12 at 06:33

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Always use equals for string Comparison. & equalsIgnoreCase for case independent comparision

Also if one of the parameter is fixed string it should be used to compare like in your case F which avoid unnecessary null checks.

"F".equalsIgnoreCase(inputStatus)

Your code should look something like below.

   System.out.print("Employee's Last Name: ");
    String inputName = null;
    String inputStatus = null;
    if (scanner.hasNext())
        inputName = scanner.next();
    System.out.print("Employment Status (F or P): ");
    if (scanner.hasNext())
        inputStatus = scanner.next();

    if ("F".equalsIgnoreCase(inputStatus)) {
        // some code
    } else if ("P".equalsIgnoreCase(inputStatus)) {
        // some code
    } else {
        System.out.println("I don't understand...");
    }

+1 for using `equalsIgnoreCase` with literal string and not object. This avoids `NullPointerException`. — Nandkumar Tekale, Sep 20 '12 at 06:40

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 20 '12 at 06:34

3

You should use equalsIgnoreCase() method.

if (inputStatus.equalsIgnoreCase("f"))
            {
                // some code
                System.out.println(inputStatus);
            }

answered Sep 20 '12 at 06:34

swemon

5,840
4
32
54

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 20 '12 at 15:59

1

You should use the strings equals() method.

edited Sep 20 '12 at 15:59

Anne

26,765
9
65
71

answered Sep 20 '12 at 06:32

meirrav

761
1
9
27

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 20 '12 at 06:33

1

You cannot compare strings using == operator. This operator compares references. Use equals() method instead:

if ("F".equals(inputStatus) || "f".equals(inputStatus))

answered Sep 20 '12 at 06:33

AlexR

114,158
16
130
208

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 20 '12 at 06:35

1

You can't compare Strings if "==", this basically compares the memory address of the two values, which will never match.

You should use something like...

if (inputStatus.equalsIgnoreCase("f")) 
{
    // Do something...
}

instead

answered Sep 20 '12 at 06:35

MadProgrammer

343,457
22
230
366

My 'IF' statent doesn't do what I've it expected to do

5 Answers5