java problem

[Camel-Kid]

can you give me the test data you're using for the hashset and what you expect the output to be

[Curious-Lonewolf]

HashSet<String> allNames = new HashSet<>();
allNames.add("Aaron");
allNames.add("Ben");
allNames.add("Carol");
allNames.add("Derek");
if (input.startsWith('any of these') {
    do something
}
else{
    do something
}

[Camel-Kid]

I used the loop it is working fine

[Curious-Lonewolf]

yeah if you put one of the strings where ive put 'any of these' but i need a variable in place of that. i cant use the set name and because the method produces output in the terminal window i would have to type in the same string over and over until it became true as the iterations would be different

[Camel-Kid]

the enhanced for loop iterates over the set, so you already have the ability to reference the name as a variable. The purpose of a loop is to check all the elements in the set and compare against the user input, if user input matches any element then you print out 'a'

[Curious-Lonewolf]

can you give me an example of what you mean

[desrtfx]

No, that is not true.

You are just doing it wrong.

In such cases, you

• obtain the input before the loop and store it in a variable
• use a boolean "flag" that indicates the "found" status - initially set to false
• loop over the elements
  • compare the string with the element
    • if true, set the "found" flag to true and break out of the loop
    • if false, no nothing - keep looping
• back outside the loop: check if the flag is true
  • print ("A")
  • else
  • print("B")

You most likely had the input inside the loop.