How to make array case insensitive

Question

I am writing a method that takes a string and searches through all the names for any that contain a matching substring, but how to I make the

targetSubstring

which is the name the user has entered into a JTextField and the

namesArray[I].getname()

which is the data from the input file that has been stored in an array, not case-sensitive? So when the user types in for example Sam, I want it to be able to find Sammy and Isamer(since this contains sam inside the name). However, for this to happen I need Sam to not be case-sensitive. So how would I do this? I have tried the .toLowerCase because I thought that would work, but I get different compiler errors. So am I just to using the .toLowerCase right? Here is the last thing I've tried with the .toLowerCase, but it doesn't work.

   if (namesArray[i].getName().toLowerCase.contains(targetSubstring.toLowerCase))

Here is the method...

  private void match(String targetSubstring)
  {
    displayArea.setText("");
    displayArea.append("FIND RESULTS for: " + targetSubstring);
    displayArea.append("\n");
    displayArea.append("\n Name               Best Decade");
    displayArea.append("\n---------------     ---------------");
    for (int i = 0; i < namesArray.length; i++) {
      if (namesArray[i].getName().contains(targetSubstring))
      {
        displayArea.append("\n" + namesArray[i].getName() + "      " +
                        namesArray[i].bestDecade());
      }
     }
  }

Possible duplicate of [Is the 'contains' method in java.lang.String case-sensitive?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/86780/is-the-contains-method-in-java-lang-string-case-sensitive) — Zircon, May 18 '16 at 17:45

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 18 '16 at 17:47

targetSubstring = targetSubstring.toUpper ();
for (int i = 0; i < namesArray.length; i++) {
  String theName = namesArray[i].getName();
  if (theName.toUpper ().contains(targetSubstring))
  {
    displayArea.append("\n" + theName + "      " + namesArray[i].bestDecade());
  }
 }

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 18 '16 at 17:55

Alternatively you can use code just like Gregory suggested but with the use of StringUtils from org.apache.commons.lang

for (int i = 0; i < namesArray.length; i++) {
  String theName = namesArray[i].getName();
  if (StringUtils.containsIgnoreCase(theName, targetSubstring ))
  {
    displayArea.append("\n" + theName + "      " + namesArray[i].bestDecade());
  }
 }

How to make array case insensitive

2 Answers2