String index out of range: 1

When I enter the 2 char movieCode the program works fine, but when I enter only 1 I get String index out of range: 1. Is there a way to code it to accept 1 or 2 chars? Thanks.

import java.util.Scanner;    
/**

*/

public class Viewer
  {
       char d; 
	    char c;
    	 private String customer;
	    private String movieCode;
	    private double cost;
	
	   	public Viewer (String customer, String movieCode)  
	      {  
            this.customer = customer ; 
				this.movieCode = movieCode;
				computeCost ();    
			}  
     	   	     
	      public String toString() 
			{
		    return (customer + " " + movieCode + " " + "$"+ cost);			
			
			}
			
			public void computeCost ()  
	      {  
	         double movieCost = 3.95;  
	           
					char	c = movieCode.charAt(0); 		  
								
				   switch (c)         
				   				
				  {  
	            case'A' : cost = movieCost* 1.50;  
	               	                  
						break;  
	           
				  case 'B': cost = movieCost*1.36;  
	                break;  
	            
				  case 'C': cost = movieCost*1.26;  
	                break;  
	            
				  case 'D': cost = movieCost*1.06;  
	                break;  
	            
				  case 'F': cost = movieCost*1.00;  
	                break;    
						 
						 default:
                    System.out.println("Error");
            		  cost = 9999.99;   
             }						 		  	 
					 		
						if (movieCode.charAt(1)== 'N')//Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: 
						                               // String index out of range: 1

{  
	                  cost = (movieCost + 2.50)*1.50;  
	               }              
						else  
	               {            
						   System.out.println("Error");

cost = 9999.99;  
	               }  
						
						//if  (d == 'R')  
	               // /   {
						    //   cost = movieCost + 1.00;  	                    
	                //   }
						 // else  
	                 //  {            
							   // cost = 9999.99;  
	                 //  }  
	         }
				
		}  
	        
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;  // Needed for JOptionPane

/**
  */

public class ViewerTest
{
   public static void main(String[] args)
   {
           
      String Name = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Enter your first and last name " );
   
				                                       
		String MC = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Enter first letter of movie code:" );
      
		MC = MC.toUpperCase();
      	
		Viewer nViewerTest = new Viewer(Name, MC);
		
		System.out.println(nViewerTest);

}
}

ed spithaler wrote:When I enter the 2 char movieCode the program works fine, but when I enter only 1 I get String index out of range: 1. Is there a way to code it to accept 1 or 2 chars?

Yes.

But the question you need to be asking yourself is: what is the index of the first character?

Suggestion: Look up the API documentation for String.charAt().

Winston

Winston,
The API shows:

Returns the char value at the specified index. An index ranges from 0 to length() - 1. The first char value of the sequence is at index 0, the next at index 1, and so on, as for array indexing.

I know that the first char is at 0 and the second char is at 1. When I enter only 1 char it is at 0, but the program is trying to extract at 0 and 1 indexes, and 1 is empty, which is probably why there is an error. OK, how do you fix it?

Ed

That is for you to decide. You need to decide whether you accept only two-character codes. In which case you would do well to test for them before acceptance, and maybe throw an IllegalArgumentException if the length is incorrect.

How many characters user can enter? Is there any limit on that? Your code does look for at least 2 characters.

or is it a typo?

You can validate user input for number of characters before you call computeCost function.

The movieCode has to be 1 or 2 chars.

In that case you need something different from charAt(1).
You could try a Map<String, Something>.
You could try a switch-case with the different codes as the cases (Strings there only work in Java7).
You could try an if test on the length of the code. Inside an if (code.length() > 1) block, you can be sure charAt(1) will work.

Thanks for all of your options. I am sure I can find one to work.

Ed

You’re welcome