.equal problem question

[Scott Pike]

hi. I'm doing SimpleDotComGeme class for the Had First java book ch.5. heres the error message i get when compiling
:SimpleDotComGame.java: cannot find symbol
symbol: method equal(java.lang. String)
location: class java.lang.String
if (result.equal("kill")) { theres a little arrow that points at the period point between result word and the equal word , the period. What is wrong?

Heres the rest of the class code if that helps.

public class SimpleDotComGame {
public static void main(String[] args) {

int numOfGuesses = 0;

GameHelper helper = new GameHelper();

SimpleDotCom theDotCom = new SimpleDotCom();

int randomNum = (int) (Math.random() * 5);


int[] locations = {randomNum, randomNum+1, randomNum+2};

theDotCom.setLocationCells(locations);

boolean isAlive = true;


while(isAlive == true) {
String guess = helper.getUserInput("enter a number");
String result = theDotCom.checkYourself(guess);

numOfGuesses++;
if (result.equal("kill")) {
isAlive = false;
System.out.println("You took " + numOfGuesses + "guesses");
} //close if
} //close while
}// close main
} //close class

[Christophe Verré]

It should be named "equals", with an "s"

[Scott Pike]

thank you