String Comparison Problem.

[Brett Freedman]

First example: I set posTest to "C", display it and then test it for "C". The if statement works. playbyplayText is "CX".

        String posTest = "C"
        playbyplayText.append(posTest);
        if (posTest == "C")playbyplayText.append("X");

Second example: I pull the "C" out of my teamplayer object. The "C" displays but the if statement does not fire. playbyplayText is only "C".

        String posTest = teamplayer[teamball][who].getPosition();
        playbyplayText.append(posTest);
        if (posTest == "C")playbyplayText.append("X");

Here is my player class. I am reading the data out of a space delimited text file.

Why won't (posTest == "C") evaluate as true?

Sample data:

Bucks C Kareem Abdul-jabbar 22 16 2 58
Bucks G Oscar Robertson 15 6 4 50
Bucks G Jon Mcglocklin 13 3 2 53

Declaration and class:

teamplayer[i][j] = new Player(pteam, pposition, pname, shoots, boards, asts, pct);

public class Player
{
    private String team;
    private String name;
    private String position;
    private int Shoots;
    private int Boards;
    private int Asts;
    private int Pct;

    private double FGA;
    private double FGM;
    private double Points;
    private double Rebounds;
    private double Assists;
    
    DecimalFormat Whole = new DecimalFormat("#0");

    public Player(String pTeam, String pPosition, String pName, int pShoots, int pBoards, int pAsts, int pPct) 
    { 
        team = pTeam;
        position = pPosition;
        name = pName; 
        Shoots = pShoots; 
        Boards = pBoards;
        Asts = pAsts;
        Pct = pPct;
       
        FGA = 0;
        FGM = 0;
        Points = 0;
        Rebounds = 0;
        Assists = 0;
        
    } 

    public String getPosition()
    {
        return position();
    }

[Rob Spoor]

Never use == for String comparison but use the equals method instead. == checks for instance equality whereas the equals method actually checks the String contents.

[Brett Freedman]

This is the complete code that builds the Player objects.

                
                while (scan.hasNext())
                {
                    if (j==8){i++;j=0;}
                    
                    String pteam = scan.next();
                    String pposition = scan.next();
                    String pname = scan.next() + " " + scan.next();
                    int shoots = scan.nextInt();
                    int boards = scan.nextInt();
                    int asts = scan.nextInt();
                    int pct = scan.nextInt();
                    
                    teamplayer[i][j] = new Player(pteam, pposition, pname, shoots, boards, asts, pct);
                    
                    j++;
                }

[Brett Freedman]

Rob Prime wrote:Never use == for String comparison but use the equals method instead. == checks for instance equality whereas the equals method actually checks the String contents.

Fixed. Thanks Rob! I've been going around and around with that bit of code all day.

[Rob Spoor]

You're welcome.