I have two classes: Customer and MovieSeating. (the problem condition is in the assignCustomerAt method in MovieSeating)
public class Customer
{
private String lastName;
private String firstName;
// This constructor sets the first name and last name to "???"
public Customer(){
lastName = "???";
firstName = "???";
}
// This method returns a string containing a customer's initials
// (first characters of firstName and lastName.)
public String toString()
{
String result = firstName.charAt(0) + "." + lastName.charAt(0) + ".";
return result;
}
}
So something.toString(); returns "?.?."
Right?
All is well BUT then there's this.
public class MovieSeating{
public Customer[][] seating;
public int rowNumber;
public int colNumber;
public MovieSeating(int rowNum, int columnNum){
rowNumber= rowNum;
colNumber=columnNum;
Customer thisGuy = new Customer();
Customer[][] seaTing = new Customer[rowNum][columnNum];
for(int i = 0; i<rowNum;i++){
for(int j = 0; j<columnNum; j++){
seaTing[i][j] = thisGuy;
}
}
seating = seaTing;
}
public boolean assignCustomerAt(int row, int col, Customer tempCustomer){
String a = seating[row][col].toString();
if(a=="?.?."){ //THE CONDITION IN THIS IF STATEMENT IS THE PROBLEM
seating[row][col] = tempCustomer;
return true;
}
return false;
}
The purpose of the last method is to assign someone to a spot if and only if the seat is not taken (as noted by the customer having the initials "?.?."). But regardless, when the value of String a is "?.?.", the condition returns false. I've tried and tested to see that seating[row][col].toString(); returns "?.?." and it sure does. I've put parenthesis around each item and tried making two different strings and this and that and nothing works! It's like saying that (1*1) != 1. What's the deal???? Thanks in advance
