Validating user inputted letters

Question

I have here my code and I am trying to check whether the user inputs Y or N to get to the switch statement, however even if I write Y or N it gives me the error message, what am I doing wrong? thanks in advance

public void anotherAction() throws IOException{
    System.out.println();
    System.out.println("Would you like to perform an additional action? 'Y' or 'N'");
    while(!reader.hasNextLine()){
        System.out.println("Enter either 'Y' or 'N'");
    }
    String response =reader.nextLine().toUpperCase();
    while(response != "Y" || response != "N"){
        System.out.println("Enter 'Y' or 'N'");
        response = reader.nextLine();
        continue;
    }
    switch(response){
        case "Y":
            cc.getCommand(this.makeOption());
            break;
        case "N":
            System.out.println("Exiting System...");
            break;
    }
}

what about it?? do I remove it? or do I write it differently? — Andrey Arias, May 12 '13 at 02:37
`String response =reader.nextLine();` `while(!response.equalsIgnoreCase("Y") || !response.equalsIgnoreCase("N")){...}` — Lion, May 12 '13 at 02:40
I might just switch to Console because it does not work, I changed as Lion told me and it does the same, is there anything else that could be out of place? — Andrey Arias, May 12 '13 at 02:53
has to be && not || in order to evaluate the two possibilities since it has to be one of the two.......geez — Andrey Arias, May 12 '13 at 03:12

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 12 '13 at 02:37

0

You should use equals() to compare Strings.

answered May 12 '13 at 02:37

Marcelo

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 12 '13 at 02:58

The above answer is correct - but you might want to minimize the amount of string comparison your doing with your primary functions (It quickly becomes hard to maintain, and you have a perfect opportunity to encapsulate user input as a bool)

Something like this may help you in the long run

    public void anotherAction() throws IOException
    {
        System.out.println();
        System.out.println("Would you like to perform an additional action? 'Y' or 'N'");
        if (getAction()) 
        {
            cc.getCommand(this.makeOption());
        }
        else {
            System.out.println("Exiting System...");
        }
    }

    private bool getAction()
    {
        while(true)
        {
            System.out.println("Enter either 'Y' or 'N'");
            String response =reader.nextLine().toUpperCase();
            if (response.equals("Y")) {
                return true;
            }
            else if (response.Equals("N")) {
                return false;
            }
            else {
                System.out.println("Wrong input, please try again...");
            }
        }
    }

I think I did it way to complicated by looking at your code, however I have not had good experiences when validating input with IF statements — Andrey Arias, May 12 '13 at 03:15

Validating user inputted letters

2 Answers2