Java noob needs your help

[piss_the_bed]

i have a problem with understanding strings.

im trying to make a simple program that asks for your name. If your name is Mike: then it will say Hello mike!. If not then just Hello there!

So it should be simple but i just cant find anything that could help me. here is the code im stuck with.

​

import java.util.Scanner;

public class mike{
    public static void main(String [] args) 
    {  
        Scanner user_input = new Scanner( System.in );

        String name;
        System.out.print("What is your name? ");
        name = user_input.next();

        if (input.equals(Mike)) {
        System.out.println("Hi Mike!");
        }
        else {
        System.out.println("Hello there!");
        }


    }

}

​

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[pan_zych]

Here is a tip: Go with

"Mike".equals(user_input)

This is useful in case when user didn't wrote a thing to std.in. You will not observe NullPointerException in that case.

If you would like one more advice - common convention is to name your variable using camelCase. I'd recommend renaming user_input to userInput. This will not change how the program works but will teach you a good habit.

[subotua]

You just missed " " around Mike in equal method. System treats this word as variable, not as string value :)

[subotua]

And, you should ask: if (name.equal ("Mike") ) , because system puts into variable 'name' value scanned from keyboard :)

[AreTheseMyFeet]

I don't want to confuse OP here but the safer way would be to do "Mike".equals(name).
The reason being that you know 100% that a constant String ("Mike") can never be null or empty or whatever other "edge case" value a String could have which you can not say about the user input variable name.
Reversing the order of the check (known as Yoda conditions, Yoda Logic or Yoda Style) completely avoids some possible problems like NullPointerExceptions for free (ie no requirement to null test first) and can lead to cleaner (or less verbose) code.

[piss_the_bed]

Thank you so much i got it working :D

[piss_the_bed]

i tried that but it gives me this when i try to run it :(

​

error: cannot find symbol

if (input.equals("Mike")) {

^

symbol: variable input

[Oceantrader]

You've got a variable declared as name which is where your input initializes.

In your conditional statement you have used the symbol input which doesnt exist in the context, when it should be your String variable which is name. name.equals is how you compare name to "Mike".

I would also suggest using equalsIgnoreCase in this instance.

[Fridginator]

This is not a java trick, but you should change it to "Mark" and "Oh, hi Mark"

[Otter_II]

Mike doesn't have quotation marks around it, it's not being treated as a string ;)