I have the following code, which continues to ask the user to enter a letter as long as the letter is either "a" or "b":
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Main
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
String letter;
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
letter = scan.nextLine();
while(letter.equals("a") || letter.equals("b"))
{
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
letter = scan.nextLine();
}
}
}
But the following code is repeated twice:
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
letter = scan.nextLine();
Is there a way to make the above code only appear one time?
while (true) {
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
String letter = scan.nextLine();
if (!letter.equals("a") && !letter.equals("b"))
break;
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
}
This is the classic example of a loop that is neither naturally while-do nor do-while — it needs to exit from the middle, if you want the same behavior and also to reduce code duplication.
(Notice also that the variable declaration letter has been moved to an inner scope since it is no longer needed in the outer scope. This is a small positive indication.)
As an alternative to while (true) some languages allow degenerate for-loop as in for(;;).
The below reverses the logic of the conditional loop exit test, at the expense of more control flow logic.
while (true) {
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
String letter = scan.nextLine();
if (letter.equals("a") || letter.equals("b")) {
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
continue;
}
break;
}
(There is no difference between these in efficiency terms — these are equivalent at the level of machine code.)
do while loop
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Main
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
String letter;
do{
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
letter = scan.nextLine();
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
}while(letter.equals("a") || letter.equals("b"));
}
}
It will loop once first, and then continue again if the statment is true.
You need to perform three sequential actions in a loop:
read the input entered by the user;
validate the input;
print the input, but only if it is valid.
That means that conditional logic must reside inside the loop before the statement that prints the input. And that makes the condition of the loop redundant. Instead, we can create an infinite loop with a break statement wrapped by a condition, that validates the input.
While loop
That's how it can be done using a while loop:
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
String letter;
while (true) {
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
letter = scan.nextLine();
if (!letter.matches("[ab]")) break;
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
}
}
Method matches() that expects a regular expression as argument is used in the code above to simplify the termination condition.
For more information on regular expressions, take a look at this tutorial
For loop
Regarding the advice of utilizing a for loop - that's doable, but by its nature the task of reading the user input fits better in the concept of while loop because we don't know the amount of data in advance, and the iteration can terminate at any point in time.
Also note syntax of the for statement consists of three parts separated with a semicolon:
initialization expression - allow to define and initialize variables that would be used in the loop;
termination expression - condition which terminates the execution of the loop;
increment expression - defines how variables would change at each iteration step.
All these parts are optional, but the two semicolons ; inside the parentheses always have to be present.
Because as I've said earlier, the input needs to be validated inside the loop, we can't take advantage from the termination expression and increment expression.
For the sake of completeness, below I've provided the version of how it can be achieved using a for loop:
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
for (String letter = "a"; ;) {
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
letter = scan.nextLine();
if (!letter.matches("[ab]")) break;
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
}
}
The only advantage is that the scope of the variable letter was reduced. But approach of utilizing while loop is more readable and expressive.
Alternative approach
Another option is to preserve your initial structure of the code:
initialize the variable letter before the loop, at the same line where it is defined;
enter the loop if letter holds a valid input;
print the input and reassign the variable.
But in order to avoid duplication of the code line responsible for printing the prompt and reading the input will be extracted into a separate method.
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
String letter = readInput(scan);
while (letter.matches("[ab]")) {
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
letter = readInput(scan);
}
}
public static String readInput(Scanner scan) {
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
return scan.nextLine();
}
As Bobulous mentioned, a do-while loop is another simple solution. If duplicating the conditional is still a deal-breaker for you, though, you can also create a function that returns a boolean, and, when true, prints the extra text.
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
String letter;
do
{
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
letter = scan.nextLine();
} while(inputIsAOrB(letter));
}
public static boolean inputIsAOrB(String input) {
if (input.equals("a") || input.equals("b"))
{
System.out.println("You entered: " + input);
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}
A while loop with a break after executing your second print command will limit the code to only asking for a single input.
Scanner ct = new Scanner(System.in);
String input;
System.out.print("Please enter either 'a' or 'b': ");
input = ct.nextLine();
while(input.equals("a") || input.equals("b")){
System.out.println("You entered: " + input);
break;
}
You can also view the problem as generating and processing a stream of strings. The side effects in the generator may trigger some philosophical discussions, otherwise I think it is quite clean:
Stream.generate(() -> {
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
return scan.nextLine();
})
.takeWhile(str -> str.equals("a") || str.equals("b"))
.forEach(str -> System.out.println("You entered: " + str));
... which will run like this:
Enter a letter: a
You entered: a
Enter a letter: b
You entered: b
Enter a letter: c
Process finished with exit code 0
Simply
List<Character> expectedChars = new ArrayList<>();
expectedChars.add('a');
expectedChars.add('b');
while(!expectedChars.contains(line = scan.nextLine())) {
System.out.println("Not expected");
}
// Now has a expected char. Proceed.
I without using any break or if-else externally (I am using ternary operator though) within control loop, you can also use below :
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
boolean flag=true;
while (flag) {
System.out.println("enter letter");
String bv = scanner.nextLine();
flag=bv.matches("a|b");
System.out.println(flag?"you entered"+bv:' ');
}
with for loop, it can be even simpler :
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
for (boolean flag = true; flag;) {
System.out.println("enter letter");
String bv = scanner.nextLine();
flag = bv.matches("a|b");
System.out.println(flag ? "you entered" + bv : ' ');
}
Or if you ok for having whitspace for first run:
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
String aa=" ";
String bv=null;
for (boolean flag = true; flag;aa=(flag?"you entered: "+bv:" ")) {
System.out.println(aa);
System.out.println("enter letter");
bv = scanner.nextLine();
flag = bv.matches("a|b");
}
You can easily run a while loop until letter = "a" or letter = "b". Code will start the while loop with intial "" value of the letter and get the new value by scanner. Then it check the new value of the letter before starting the next round of the loop.
package com.company;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Main
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
String letter = "";
while(!(letter.equals("a") || letter.equals("b")))
{
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
letter = scan.nextLine();
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
}
}
}
Similar as previous answer, but from a code readability perspective i would create an array of valid characters instead and use in condition. That results in the more "text like" condition below reading "if not validCharacters contains letter":
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
List<String> validCharacters = List.of("a", "b");
while (true) {
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
String letter = scan.nextLine();
if (!validCharacters.contains(letter)) {
break;
}
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
}
}
Your code just needed a little tweak to make it work, although you can use many more efficient approaches but here it is:
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Main
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
String letter = "a";
while(letter.equals("a") || letter.equals("b"))
{
System.out.print("Enter a letter: ");
letter = scan.nextLine();
System.out.println("You entered: " + letter);
}
}
}
I need the user to enter an integer input, check whether it starts by 0 and tell the user to enter another integer if that is the case
I tried parsing the integer input to a string, that works but only once. The string cannot be edited when program loops
I think the solution should not at all involve strings because i need the program to loop and check over and over until the input is valid (ie has no leading zeroes)
Splitting each digit of the int into an array does not work also because the ways i found pass by string.
public static void main(String[] args){
Scanner key = new Scanner(System.in);
int in= 0;
boolean looper=true;
while (looper == true) {
System.out.println("Enter an integer");
in = key.nextInt();
/* check whether in has any leading zeroes, example of
wrong input: 09999, 0099*/
if (/*in has no leading zeroes*/)
looper = false;
}
key.close();
}
Maybe another answer would be to have a method that creates a brand new string every time the program loops, so maybe like a recursion that automatically creates strings, not sure if that's even a thing though.
You can make it cleaner by using a do-while loop instead of while(true). Note that an integer starting with 0 is an octal number e.g.
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
int x = 06;
System.out.println(x);
// x = 09; // Compilation error - out of range
}
}
Thus, 06 is a valid integer. For your requirement, you can input to a String variable and prompt the user to again if it starts with a zero. If the input does not start with a zero, try parsing it to an int and process it if it succeeds; otherwise, loopback e.g.
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner key = new Scanner(System.in);
String input = "";
int in = 0;
boolean valid = true;
do {
System.out.print("Enter an integer: ");
input = key.nextLine();
if (input.startsWith("0")) {
System.out.println("Invalid input");
valid = false;
} else {
try {
in = Integer.parseInt(input);
System.out.println("You entered " + in);
// ... process it
valid = true;
} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
System.out.println("Invalid input");
valid = false;
}
}
} while (!valid);
}
}
A sample run:
Enter an integer: 09999
Invalid input
Enter an integer: xyz
Invalid input
Enter an integer: 123
You entered 123
As an aside, never close a Scanner(System.in) because it also closes System.in and there is no way to open it without rebooting the JVM.
I am currently experimenting with Java, trying to get the user to input an integer. If the user doesn't enter an integer I want a message to appear saying "You need to enter an Integer: " with a completely new input field to the original one.
Code:
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner inputScanner = new Scanner(System.in);
int counter = 0;
boolean run = true;
int userInput = 0;
while (run) {
System.out.print("Enter an integer: ");
if (inputScanner.hasNextInt()) {
userInput = inputScanner.nextInt();
} else if (!inputScanner.hasNextInt()) {
while (!inputScanner.hasNextInt()) {
System.out.print("You need to enter an Integer: ");
userInput = inputScanner.nextInt();
}
}
System.out.println(userInput);
if (counter == 6) {
run = false;
}
counter++;
}
}
}
At the moment the code above gives an Exception error ("java.util.InputMismatchException"). I have tried to use a try/catch but this doesn't really work because I want the user to see the second message ("You need to enter an Integer") everytime they don't enter an integer and I don't want it to re-loop around the main run loop for the same reason. I'm sure there is a better way to do this, however I am not sure of it. Any help will be massively appreciated, thanks in advance.
In this case it would make more sense for the Scanner to use hasNextLine and then convert the String to an Integer. If that you could do something like this:
try {
new Integer(inputScanner.hasNextLine);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println(“<error message>”)
}
In place of the if(inputScanner.hasNextInt()) due to the fact that the hasNextInt function will error out if there is not an Integer to be read.
I wrote a program to read username from keyboard. When I enter any integer or special characters, it is taking that values and displaying on console. But I want that it should not take any integers and special characters. It should take only letters and if any integer or special character is there, then it should give the error message and should not store that value. Can anybody help me with this problem?
The program program which I wrote is
import java.util.Scanner;
public class CheckIsEmpty {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
while (true) {
System.out.println("Enter User Name:: ");
System.out.println();
String usn = sc.nextLine();
if (usn.trim().isEmpty()) {
System.out.println("Don't Give Space");
System.out.println();
}//if
else if (usn.isEmpty()) {
System.out.println("User Name Is Mandatory");
System.out.println();
} // if
else {
System.out.println("Hi " + usn);
System.out.println("Welcome To Java");
break;
}// else
}//while
}//main
}// class
You can use regex here. If all characters are letters then following code will return true.
usn.matches("[a-zA-Z]+")
If an input string is having any other char it will return false.
Hope it helps.
You can use pattern matching..
boolean b = Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z]+").matcher(username).matches();
I need help with looping my code in Java. So far I have:
import java.util.Scanner;
public class chara{
public static void main(String[]args){
int count = 0;
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Input a string");
String user=input.nextLine();
if(user.length()<7)
{
return;
}
else
{
}
System.out.println("Now input a letter to be replaced");
String letter = input.next();
if(letter.length()!=1)
{
return;
}
else
{
}
String user2 = user.replace(letter, "-");
String user3 = user.replace(letter, "");
count += (user.length() - user3.length());
System.out.println(user2);
System.out.println(user3);
System.out.println("#"+letter+"'s: "+count);
}
}
The code does everything I want it to except that when the string condition is not met (user<7, letter!=1) the program terminates and what I need it to do is ask the question again. Does anyone know how I can achieve this?
You need to put your looping code in method that can be called, then when the conidtion is not met you can go back to your question, and depending on that condidtion, quit the program, or call the loop method.
You just need a loop with a break condition, this should do it for you:
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Input a string");
String user=input.nextLine();
while (true)
{
if(user.length() <7 ) {break;}
input = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Too long, input a string < 7");
user=input.nextLine();
}
if(user.length()<7)......
A simple way would be to wrap your main logic within a loop with a boolean condition. This condition stays true when there is an "error" in the input. The condition is then false when the user proceeds as wanted.
Your code would look as so :
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Tester{
public static void main(String[]args){
int count = 0;
boolean keepGoing = true;
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
while(keepGoing) {
System.out.println("Input a string");
String user=input.nextLine();
if(user.length()<7)
{
keepGoing = true;
//enter an error message here
}
else
{
System.out.println("Now input a letter to be replaced");
String letter = input.next();
if(letter.length()!=1)
{
keepGoing = true;
//enter an error message here
}
else
{
String user2 = user.replace(letter, "-");
String user3 = user.replace(letter, "");
count += (user.length() - user3.length());
System.out.println(user2);
System.out.println(user3);
System.out.println("#"+letter+"'s: "+count);
keepGoing = false;
}
}
}
input.close(); //Close resources
}
}
Unrelated
The convention is that class names start with a capital letter. In your case your class should be Chara, not chara.
Also, when opening resources make sure you close them. This is to avoid having resources leaked. Some IDEs will tell you something like this Resource leak: 'input' is never closed. It's a good idea to use a good IDE to help you with potential problems like this one.