Capturing "Enter Key" or "Blank" in Switch Statement

[Ken Huskerson]

Hello,

I am looking for a way to capture the enter key for user input used in a switch statement.

The problem is when a user doesn't entere a valid value and just presses the enter key.

I though it might be capture as:

if(action = null || action = " ")

but neither are working.

Is there some kind of escape character I should be checking for?

Thanks in advance!

kh

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Hi Ken ,

Welcome to JavaRanch!

First, if you're reading lines from standard input using a BufferedReader or something similar, then if the user just presses Enter, you'll get an empty string, "" (no space between the quotes.)

Second, to compare String objects, you need to use the equals() method, and not the "==" operator. The former compares contents of Strings; the latter tells you if the two strings are the same physical object in memory.

So you're looking for something like

if (action == null || action.equals(""))

[Ken Huskerson]

I'm embarrassed. I should have know that. Thank you for the quick response.



kh

[Dirk Schreckmann]

No need to feel embarrassed. It's for questions like these that the Beginners forum exists.