Code is not working

[john price]

 
 //at top of code
Boolean started = false;
String intdir;

  //later
if (started = false) {
			startball = (int) Math.random();
			startball *= 2;
			if (startball == 0) {startball += 1;}
			if (startball == 1) {initdir = "left";}
			else {initdir = "right";}
			started = true;
          	}
	System.out.println("started = " + started);
	System.out.println("initdir = " + initdir);

Output:

started = false
initdir = null

I did this several times and came up with the same result. What is wrong with my code and how do I fix it?

[Ulf Dittmer]

if (started = false) {

This line is missing one crucial character.

[john price]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:

if (started = false) {

This line is missing one crucial character.

Thank you very much. Why didn't I get an error message from this?
I was missing the "extra" =.
Thanks,
cc11rocks

[Greg Brannon]

Some IDEs will flag this as a possible error, but, technically, it's not an error. In the if statement,

if ( x )

x is evaluated as either true or false. In your code, if ( started = false ), in the expression

started = false;

false was assigned to started, and

if ( started )

was evaluated as being either true or false. In this case, I assume it was determined to be false.

[Darryl Burke]

Also, it's bad form to use == to compare booleans to true or false.

// if (started == false)
if (!started)

//

// if (started == true)
if (started)

And the topic has nothing to do with GUIs, so I shall move it to an appropriate place.

[David O'Meara]

Or get in the habit of using Yoda Conditions
if(false=started) will give the error you expect
if(false==started) will then work as desired
see alse
if("".equals(mystring)) and other constant==variable forms.

[Death Arte]

nice thread.. i've learned a lot..

[fred rosenberger]

One tip on posting questions...When you simply say "My code doesn't work", it can be extremely hard for folks to know what you mean. Please tell what is is doing (you did that) and what you think it should be doing (that's the part you didn't).

A lot of the time, the code IS working the way it should, but the original poster's idea of how it should work is wrong - and that can't be corrected unless we know what that is.

[Campbell Ritchie]

David O'Meara wrote: . . .
if(false=started) will give the error you expect
if(false==started) will then work as desired
see also
if("".equals(mystring)) and other constant==variable forms.

I personally would ban the use of == or != with true or false as an operand, on either side. But if ("Campbell".equals(name)) is a good idea; you cannot get a NullPointerException from it, however hard you try.