read input from console question

[Claire Yang]

I wrote the following code to read user's input repeatedly until user types "n", but whatever I typed, the while condition is always true, can anyone tell me what's the problem of the code? Thanks.

import java.io.*;
public class test {
    public static void main(String argv[]) {
String reply="";
InputStreamReader ir=new InputStreamReader(System.in);
BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(ir);
System.out.print("Please keyin 'y'/'n': ");
try {
            while((reply=br.readLine())!="n") {
    //call methodA();
}
//call methodB();
}
catch (IOException e) {
    System.err.println("something wrong!");
}
    }
}

[chi Lin]

change while((reply=br.readLine())!="n") to something use equals().

[Claire Yang]

Thanks a lot, chi Lin.
I changed the original code to "while(!((reply=br.readLine()).equals("n")))" and it works, but could you explain why? Does readLine() method create a String object(in heap) from the console input and return it?
[ May 14, 2004: Message edited by: Claire Yang ]

[chi Lin]

the object is not in literal pool, so compare with != don't give correct result.

to see this, try
while( (reply=br.readLine().intern()) != "n" )

but equals() should be a better approach.
[ May 14, 2004: Message edited by: chi Lin ]