changing a String to a char

[Valarie Brandt]

I need to have the user enter A, B,C to decide their payment option and then I need to (in the same method) write code that says if the user selects a then the number of payments is 1 if b then number of payments 2 if c number of payments is 20 and pass that number to a method to be used for a calculation. but i get the error that == cannot be applied to java.lang.String, char soo how do i change a string to a char-----I know that to changea String to a double you use double.parsedouble.......is there a simialr thing for that?
public void getNumberOfPayments(Lawn lawnQuote)throws Exception
{
String userPaymentSelection;
int numberOfPayment;
userPaymentSelection = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null,
"\n\n\tChoose the number of payments for your lawn service:"
+ "\n\tEnter A for one payment "
+ "\n\tEnter B for two payments "
+ "\n\tEnter C for three payments "
+ "\n\n\t Enter Selection (A, B, C): ");
if (userPaymentSelection == 'A' || userPaymentSelection == 'a')
{
numberOfPayment = 1;
}
else if (userPaymentSelection == 'B' || userPaymentSelection == 'b')
{
numberOfPayment = 2;
}
else if (userPaymentSelection == 'C' || userPaymentSelection == 'c')
{
numberOfPayment = 20;
}
lawnQuote.setNumberOfPayment(numberOfPayment);
}

[chi Lin]

char ch = userPaymentSelection.charAt(0); // convert string to char
HTH

[Valarie Brandt]

What does the charAt mean
I am familiar changing a sting to a char would be similar to changing a string to a double
ex: double numLength = Double.parseDouble(userLength) I thought it would be similar......
thank you

[chi Lin]

charAt(int index) is a method of String class,
it return the char at indexd position.
here, chararter at index zero is what you needed.