Probelm with equals method

[Alex Mun]

Hi,

I'm new in Java and I have a problem with the equals method. I have the following code:

boolean t=false;
t=bot.rotulo.equals("Configuraci�n");
System.out.println(bot.rotulo);
System.out.println(t);
if(bot.rotulo.equals("Configuraci�n"))
{
RecordStore rs=null;
String[] cdatos={"ak","gj"};
int edatos[]=new int[2];
byte datos[]=new byte[2];


cdatos[0]="aksdkfjr23445jdkls";
cdatos[1]="gjh5tf567jjdgop989";

try
{
rs = RecordStore.openRecordStore("bastidores",true);
System.out.println("record store bastidores opened.");
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Error: "+e.getMessage());
}
finally
{
try
{
rs.closeRecordStore();
System.out.println("record store bastidores closed");
}
catch (Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Error: "+e.getMessage());
}
}
try
{
rs = RecordStore.openRecordStore("bastidores",true);
rs.addRecord(datos,0,datos.length);
if(rs.getNumRecords()>0)
{
for(int i=0;i<=datos.length;i++)
{
datos=cdatos[i].getBytes();
rs.addRecord(datos,0,datos.length);
System.out.println(datos[i]);
}
}

}
catch(Exception e){}
finally
{
try
{
rs.closeRecordStore();
}
catch (Exception e){}
}
}

The problem is that the t value is false when I select Configuraci�n button. That is, I have three buttons in the screen that are Configuraci�n, Recuento and Sincronizaci�n. When I click in some of this buttons I always obtain the same result: false and the if code never is done.


Anyone knows why?

I also tried using the CompareTo method but the result is the same.

Thanks a lot.

[Nigel Browne]

I hope I haven't misunderstood what you are trying to do, but from it appears that you are comparing a Button/JButton instance to a string literal. Is the name of your Button/JButton the same as the string ?
if so try something along the the lines of the following code snipppet

 
String t = "test";
if (t.equals(myButton.getName()){
   System.out.print("True");
}

[ October 05, 2004: Message edited by: Nigel Browne ]

[Alex Mun]

Thanks for replying but the button is not a JButton as you say Nigel, because I work with MIDP 1.0 (J2ME) and with this profile button doesn't exists.

I have a method that returns button name call getRotulo() and the result is saved in a String. I just changed some code lines and now I have the following:

String rotulo = bot.getRotulo(); //I obtain button's name here
boolean t=false;

t=rotulo.equals("Configuraci�n");
System.out.println(rotulo);
System.out.println(t);

if(rotulo.equals("Configuraci�n"))
{
RecordStore rs=null;
String[] cdatos={"ak","gj"};
//String cdatos[];
int edatos[]=new int[2];
byte datos[]=new byte[2];

cdatos[0]="aksdkfjr23445jdkls";
cdatos[1]="gjh5tf567jjdgop989";

try
{
rs = RecordStore.openRecordStore("bastidores",true);
System.out.println("record store bastidores opened.");
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Error: "+e.getMessage());
}
finally
{
try
{
rs.closeRecordStore();
System.out.println("record store bastidores closed");
}
catch (Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Error: "+e.getMessage());
}
}
try
{
rs = RecordStore.openRecordStore("bastidores",true);
rs.addRecord(datos,0,datos.length);
if(rs.getNumRecords()>0)
{
for(int i=0;i<=datos.length;i++)
{
datos=cdatos[i].getBytes();
rs.addRecord(datos,0,datos.length);
System.out.println(datos[i]);
}
}

}
catch(Exception e){}
finally
{
try
{
rs.closeRecordStore();
}
catch (Exception e){}
}
}

After running this code I have the same problem.

[Nigel Browne]

Remember that java is case sensitive. The following code will produce a result of true and the false due to the Capitol 'T' in the second test

public class Test {
    public static void main (String [] args)  {
        String test = "test";
        boolean t = false;
        t = test.equals("test");
        System.out.println(t); //This case is True
        t =  test.equals("Test");
        System.out.println(t); //This case is False
    }
}

[ October 05, 2004: Message edited by: Nigel Browne ]

[Layne Lund]

What is the output from these lines of code:

t=rotulo.equals("Configuraci�n");
System.out.println(rotulo);
System.out.println(t);

Mostly, I am interested in what the second line above prints out.

In regard to the above comment about case-sensitivity, you can use String.toUpper() or String.toLower() in order to ignore case, if you wish.

Also, for future reference, you should use CODE tags when you post code. They will preserve formatting so your code will be easier to read. There are nice little buttons just below the message editing text area to help you.

Keep coding!

Layne

[Nigel Browne]

In regard to the above comment about case-sensitivity, you can use String.toUpper() or String.toLower() in order to ignore case, if you wish.

You could also use the equalsIgnoreCase(String anotherString) method of the String class

[Alex Mun]

Layne, first line prints out Configuraci�n, the same as I have typed as button name, and the second line prints out false.

I know Java is case sensitive but what I type as a name button is exactly the same as I type in equals method.

I don't know what happens but I can't solve the problem.

[Layne Lund]

That is very strange indeed. My first suspicion is that there may be some minor typo in one of the two Strings. Typically when you read, you don't look at each character in the words. In fact, a good reader rarely concentrates on individual words, so it's easy for the eye to skim over a word and not catch a misspelling. Have you checked each letter one by one to make sure the word is spelled the same in both spots?

A possible solution is to create a String constant that can be used when you create the button and later reused for comparison. This will greatly decrease the chance for an error caused by simple misspelling.

HTH

Layne

[Jim Yingst]

Is it possible that the "Configuraci�n" returned by bot.rotulo has extra whitespace at the beginning or end?

Perhaps you should write a method which compares two strings by looping through each character position and checking to see if the characters in each string are equal. If not, you can report exactly which characters are different. (Maybe there's more than one way to represent the '�' in your system?)

[Alex Mun]

Yeees! That was the problem, the spaces at the end of Configuraci�n. I compared "Configuraci�n" to "Configuraci�n " and that's why it appears false in the comparison.

I'm new in Java and after reading Java's API I were not able to know that equals method compares two Strings exactly including spaces.

Thanks to everybody who has replied to me, especially Jim.