to find the datatype of given string in runtime

[Shobana Sukumar]

im getting data from user at runtime.wat method shalli use to find its datatype?

[Jesper de Jong]

Where and how are you getting the data? In what format is the data? Is it in a file, or a database, or something else? Please provide more details, otherwise it will be hard to give you a good answer.

[Shobana Sukumar]

im getting the data as a string for instance(it can be anything int or date etc). i need to compare the datatype of this to the data type of a column in the database....

[Stan James]

Maybe find the datatype in the database through metadata and then try to convert the user input to that type and see what happens.

int columnType = resultSetMetaData.getColumnType( columnNumber );
if( columnType == java.sql.Types.INTEGER )
   Integer.parseInt( userInput );
else
if( columnType == whatever )
   attempt some other conversion

You'll get an exception on that Integer if the user entered invalid data.

[Layne Lund]

I think a common convention in this type of situation is to define what the "data type" is. That is you get each field one at a time in a pre-defined order. Then you can use the various tools available to convert it into the internal representation you wish to use. For example, when you expect an int, you can use Integer.valueOf(); when you expect a date, you can use DateFormat or SimpleDateFormat. Each of these APIs will throw an exception or return a value that indicates an ill-formatted String. You can then use this error condition to give a message to the user and possible ask for the input again.

HTH

Layne