Program not noticing when the string is equal to a specific string

Question

I've been trying to create a program that censors a word but I was having difficulty with that so I tried going back to some of the fundamental code and testing it and I am coming across an odd result.

import java.util.Scanner;

public class TextCensor
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
        String input;
        Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
        input = keyboard.nextLine();
        int length = input.length() - 1;

        if (length + 1 >= 3)
        {

            for (int i=0; i<(length - 1); i=i+1 )
            {
                char first = input.charAt(i);
                char second = input.charAt(i+1);
                char third = input.charAt(i+2);

                String censorCheck = "" + first + second + third;

                if (censorCheck == "tag")
                {
                    System.out.println("success");
                }
                else
                {
                    System.out.println(censorCheck);
                }
            }
        }
        else
        {
            System.out.println(input);
        }
}
}

If I input the string "adtag" I will obtain the following output:

adt
dta
tag

yet "success" will never be printed despite the fact that I have printed a censorCheck that is equal to "tag".

Welcome to stack overflow. For your next question ... please take some time to do prior research. You wouldn't believe how often people keep asking this question ... — GhostCat, May 20 '16 at 08:49

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 20 '16 at 08:44

0

You are trying to check whether both instance of String is same or not instead of checking contents of both string. You should try censorCheck.equals("tag") .

answered May 20 '16 at 08:44

sauumum

1,638
1
19
36

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 20 '16 at 08:52

0

To compare whether contents of two string are equal or not in JAVA you should use the equals() method. You cannot compare the value of two string by the == operator . In your case use if (censorCheck.equals("tag")) and see if you get the desired result.

answered May 20 '16 at 08:52

Arka Prava Basu

2,366
3
18
34

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 20 '16 at 08:52

0

String is an object. You have to compare objects by equals():

censorCheck.equalsIgnoreCase("tag")

Ignore case works fir upper letters as well.

Only for primitives you can use comparison by ==:

3 == 3

answered May 20 '16 at 08:52

yarco

172
7

Program not noticing when the string is equal to a specific string

3 Answers3