Converting a string input from user to a numeric (int) value. - java

I've been trying different methods for converting a user string input into an int I could compare and build an "if-then" statement. Every time I tried testing it, it just threw exception. Can anyone look at my Java code and help me find the way? I'm clueless about it (also a noob in programming). If I'm breaking any rules please let me know I'm new here. Thank you.
Anyway, here is the code:
System.out.println("Sorry couldn't find your user profile " + userName + ".");
System.out.println("Would you like to create a new user profile now? (Enter Y for yes), (Enter N for no and exit).");
try {
BufferedReader answer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
String addNewUser = answer.readLine();
Character i = new Character(addNewUser.charAt(0));
String s = i.toString();
int answerInDecimal = Integer.parseInt(s);
System.out.println(answerInDecimal);
}
catch(Exception e) {
System.out.println("You've mistyped the answer.");
e.getMessage();
}

It seems like you are trying to convert the string (which should be a single character, Y or N) into its character value, and then retrieve the numerical representation of the character.
If you want to turn Y or N into their decimal representation, you have to perform a cast to int:
BufferedReader answer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
String addNewUser = answer.readLine();
char i = addNewUser.charAt(0);
int integerChar = (int) i; //The important part
System.out.println(integerChar);
This will return the integer representation of the character that the user input. It may also be useful to call the String.toUpperCase() method in order to ensure that different inputs of Y/N or y/n do not give different values.
However, you could also do an if-else based upon the character itself, rather than converting it to an integer.
BufferedReader answer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
String addNewUser = answer.readLine();
char i = addNewUser.toUpperCase().charAt(0);
if (i == 'Y') {
//Handle yes
} else if (i == 'N') {
//Handle no
} else {
System.out.println("You've mistyped the answer.");
}

I think you meant to ask them to Enter 0 for yes and 1 for No ? Maybe?
You're asking the user to type Y or N and then you're trying to parse that to an integer. That will always throw an exception.
EDIT -- As others have pointed out, if you want to continue to use Y or N, you should do something along the lines of
String addNewUser = answer.readLine();
if ( addNewUser.toLowerCase().startsWith("y") ) {
// Create new profile
}

parseInt is just for converting text numbers into integers: everything else gets a NumberFormatException.
If you want the decimal ASCII value of a character, just cast it to an int.

Use if (addNewUser.startsWith("Y") || addNewUser.startsWith("y")) { instead.
Or (as Mark pointed) if (addNewUser.toLowerCase().startsWith("y")) {.
BTW maybe look at Apache Commons CLI?

You cannot convert String to int, unless you know the String contains a valid integer.
Firstly, using the Scanner class for input is better, since its faster
and you don't need to get into the hassle of using streams, if you're
a beginner. This is how Scanner will be used to take input:
import java.util.Scanner; // this is where the Scanner class resides
...
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in); // "System.in" is the stream, you could also pass a String, or a File object to take input from
System.out.println("Would you like to ... Enter 'Y' or 'N':");
String input = sc.next();
input = input.toUpperCase();
char choice = sc.charAt(0);
if(choice == 'Y')
{ } // do something
else if(choice == 'N')
{ } // do something
else
System.err.println("Wrong choice!");
This code could also be shortened to one line (however you won't be
able to check a third "wrong choice" condition):
if ( new Scanner(System.in).next().toUpperCase().charAt(0) == 'Y')
{ } // do something
else // for 'N'
{ } // do something
Secondly, char to int conversion just requires an explicit type
cast:
char ch = 'A';
int i = (int)ch; // explicit type casting, 'i' is now 65 (ascii code of 'A')
Thirdly, even if you take input from a buffered input stream, you
will take input in a String. So extracting the first character from
the string and checking it, simply requires a call to the charAt()
function with 0 as a parameter. It returns a character, which can
then be compared to a single character in single quotes like this:
String s = in.readLine();
if(s.charAt(0) == 'Y') { } // do something
Fourthly, its a very bad idea to put the whole program in a try
block and catch Exception at the end. An IOException can be
thrown by the readline() function, and parseInt() could throw a
NumberFormatException, so you won't be able to handle the 2
exceptions separately. In this question, the code is small enough for
this to be ignored, but in practice, there will be many functions
that can throw exceptions, hence it becomes easy to lose track of exactly which function threw what exception and proper exception handling becomes quite difficult.

Related

Is there a way to write this program using another method than .hasNext?

Write a program that asks a user to input a string. Then asks a user to type in an index value(integer). You will use the charAt( ) method from the string class to find and output the character referenced by that index. Allow the user to repeat these actions by placing this in a loop until the user gives you an empty string. Now realize that If we call the charAt method with a bad value (a negative value or a integer larger than the size of the string) an exception will be thrown. Add the code to catch this exception, output a warning message and then continue with the loop
import java.util.Scanner;
class Main
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println("");
String s;
int ind;
Scanner sc=new Scanner(System.in);
while(sc.hasNext())
{
s=sc.next();
if(s.length()==0)
break;
ind=sc.nextInt();
try {
char ch=s.charAt(ind);
System.out.println("Character is "+ch);
}
catch(Exception e) {
System.out.println("Bad index Error!");
}
}
}
}
Yes. You could rely on assignment evaluating to the assigned value. Also, call Scanner.hasNextInt() before calling Scanner.nextInt(). Like,
System.out.println();
String s;
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
while (sc.hasNext() && !(s = sc.next()).isEmpty()) {
if (sc.hasNextInt()) {
int ind = sc.nextInt();
try {
char ch = s.charAt(ind);
System.out.println("Character is " + ch);
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("Bad index Error!");
}
}
}
There is a bug; sc.next() cannot return an empty string in this code. Try editing it this way:
while(sc.hasNext()) {
s = sc.next();
if(s.length() == 0) {
System.out.println("Woah, Nelly!");
break;
}
// ...
}
See if you can get the program to print "Woah, Nelly!" by entering a blank line, or anything else. I can't, and assuming I understand the documentation correctly, it is impossible for the if condition to ever be true here (emphasis mine):
Depending upon the type of delimiting pattern, empty tokens may be returned. For example, the pattern "\\s+" will return no empty tokens since it matches multiple instances of the delimiter. The delimiting pattern "\s" could return empty tokens since it only passes one space at a time.
This pattern "\\s+" is the default one, and you haven't set a different one, so your scanner should never return an empty token. So the strict answer to "is there a way to write this program without the break statement?" is: yes, you can just delete the if(...) break; code and it doesn't change the behaviour in any way.
However, that's not really a solution to your problem because it doesn't give the user a way to exit the program. You should use nextLine() instead of next() to allow reading a blank line from the user.

Validating a single character JAVA

I'm trying to make my program validate between the use of two single characters that are input by the user, which must be A or M.
Here's my code I have thus far:
static char getCustomerType() {
System.out.println("Please enter the term for the Policy the client would like");
System.out.println("A for Annual or M for Monthly. Annual provides the user with a 10% discount");
String s = inputs.next();
while (s != 'A' && s != 'M') {
System.out.println("Incorrect, please try again");
s = inputs.next();
}
}
Netbeans however, does not like this stating the inputs.next is never used when I have set it to be used before the while statement?
It also doesn't like the while statement producing incompatible string type referencing boolean to string.
I assume this is because I have declared s as a String?
You can have single characeter input from user using below code assuming inputs is your scanner object:
char c = inputs.next(".").charAt(0);
and then you can compare it using != or .equals() or .equalsIgnoreCase()
why not write
while ( ("A".equalsIgnoreCase(s) || "M".equalsIgnoreCase(s)) == false)

How to capture non-integers in this Java program

How do I add a try-catch piece of code to stop someone from entering chars or, as a matter of fact, anything other than an int from 1 - 5?
boolean valid;
int option = 0;
do {
Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in); // need try catch
menu();
System.out.println("\n");
option = in.nextInt();
valid = option > 0 && option < 6; // try / catch needed around here?
} while(!valid); // stop chars and strings being entered
// I want to stop the user entering anything other than an int 1-5
if you need that number to check which option the user entered you dont need to do that. all you have to do is change the option variable from int to String and your if statements from
if(option==1) to if(option.equals("1"))
if you are going to need real ints for real mathematical equations then Sheetals answer will be more appropriate, but for a menu input, Strings are just fine.
dont forget that you can have String comparison with that contain numbers
"1"<"2" is true
Use string to enter the choice and then parse it using Integer.parseInt() function.
Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
String choice = in.next();
try{
int intChoice = Integer.parseInt(choice);
if(choice > 5){
throw new Exception("Can't be more than 5");
}
}catch(Exception e){
System.out.println(e.printStackTrace);
}
Why not read the token as a string and use Integer.parseInt(), ignoring tokens that cannot be parsed as an integer. If not then handle it

How do I get an input in java without using strings?

So i am trying to implement a very simple program.
i want to set bobi to a variable but without using strings. I am thinking I can do it using just char.
this is what i have so far
System.out.println("Please Enter a four letter name");
char n =
char a =
char m =
char e =
System.out.print("His name is ");
System.out.print(n);
System.out.print(a);
System.out.print(m);
System.out.print(e);
with the program i have it is
your program: Enter four letter name:
user: b
user: o
user: b
user: i
I want to be able to enter in one input
so its like this
program: Enter four letter name:
user: bobi
or is there a better way to approach
The System.in stream is the key here. You need to read each byte coming in and run it through an explicit cast to a char.
char n = (char)System.in.read();
char a = (char)System.in.read();
// And so on.
Reading Material so you understand this
Using the System.in functionality in Java. Click here.
A lesson in Explicit Casts. Click here.
It's certainly possible to read raw data from System.in:
char[] name = new char[4];
try {
char c;
int i = 0;
while((c = (char)System.in.read()) != '\n') {
if(i < name.length)
name[i++] = c;
}
} catch(IOException ioe) {}
There's a couple of notes:
System.in is terminated by a new line character (from user pressing 'enter') unlike other streams which are null or -1 terminated.
System.in should be compatible with UTF-8. It's probably the same as the system property file.encoding. I can't find an official source that says so but in any case you can just cast it to a char. This question seems to suggest compatibility would be a problem for other readers as well.
Note that this may not be simpler. Compare with using Scanner:
String line = new Scanner(System.in).nextLine();
if(line.length() > 4)
line = line.substring(0, 4);
And for both cases, you cannot control what the user enters except after they've entered it. You ask for a 4-character name but they can enter "Joe Brown" and they can enter nothing.

How do I avoid StringIndexOutOfBoundsException when char has no value?

Sorry if the title made no sense but I did not know how to word it.
The problem:
I'm making a multiple choice quiz game that gets either a, b, c or d from the user. This is no problem if they do as they are told, however if they don't type anything and just hit enter I get a StringIndexOutOfBoundsException. I understand why this is happening, but I'm new to Java and can't think of a way to fix it.
What I have so far:
System.out.println("Enter the Answer.");
response = input.nextLine().charAt(0);
if(response == 'a')
{
System.out.println("Correct");
}
else if(response == 'b' || response == 'c' || response == 'd')
{
System.out.println("Wrong");
}
else
{
System.out.println("Invalid");
}
Of course the program will never make it past the second line of code if the user types nothing, because you can't take the charAt(0) value of an empty String. What I'm looking for is something that will check if the response is null, and if so ask go back and ask the question to the user again.
Thanks in advance for any answers.
You can use a do-while loop. Just replace
response = input.nextLine().charAt(0);
with
String line;
do {
line = input.nextLine();
} while (line.length() < 1);
response = line.charAt(0);
This will continue to call input.nextLine() as many times as the user enters a blank line, but as soon as they enter a non-blank line it will continue and set response equal to the first character of that non-blank line. If you want to re-prompt the user for the answer, then you could add the prompt to the inside of the loop. If you want to check that the user entered a letter a–d you could also add that logic to the loop condition.
Either handle the exception(StringIndexOutOfBoundsException) or break this statement
response = input.nextLine().charAt(0);
as
String line = input.nextLine();
if(line.length()>0){
response = line.charAt(0);
}
Exception Handling:
try{
response = input.nextLine().charAt(0);
}catch(StringIndexOutOfBoundsException siobe){
System.out.println("invalid input");
}
Simple:
Get the input initially as a String, and put it into a temporary String variable.
Then check the String's length.
then if > 0 extract the first char and use it.
In addition #HovercraftFullOfEels' (perfectly valid) answer, I'd like to point out that you can "catch" these exceptions. For example:
try {
response = input.nextLine().charAt(0);
} catch (StringIndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
System.out.println("You didn't enter a valid input!");
// or do anything else to hander invalid input
}
i.e. if a StringIndexOutOfBoundsException is encountered when executing the try-block, the code in the catch-block will be executed. You can read more about catching and handling exceptions here.
StringIndexOutofBoundException will occur in the following situation also.
Searching a string which is not available
Match with the string which is not available
for ex:
List ans=new ArrayList();
temp="and";
String arr[]={"android","jellybean","kitkat","ax"};
for(int index=0;index < arr.length;index++ )
if(temp.length()<=arr[index].length())
if(temp.equlsIgnoreCase((String)arr[``index].subSequence(0,temp.length())));
ans.add(arr[index]);
the following code is required to avoid indexoutofboundexception
if(temp.length()<=arr[index].length())
because here we are cheking the length of src string is equal or greater than temp .
if the src string length is less than it will through "arrayindexoutof boundexception"

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