删除方法不删除EmployeeStore的员工

Question

My delete method doesn't seem to be functioning because the application fails to delete the employee when the user attempts to by entering the employees name. What is supposed to happen is the following:

1. The user inputs the employee's name using a mnethod I have written called userInputByName.
2. The application searches the store for this employee.
3. The employee is removed.

Step 3 does not work when I then print out the store the employee is still there.

I will now show you my code.

MainApp()

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Name:        Case 3: Delete by Name.
//  Description: Choice 3 gives the user an option to delete an employee by name.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            case 3:
                System.out.println("Delete by Name.");
                Employee employeeDelete = MenuMethods.userInputByName();
                Store.searchByName(employeeDelete.getEmployeeName());
                System.out.println("Your choice is: "+ employeeDelete);
                Store.remove(employeeDelete);
                break;

Employee

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Employee class.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
public class Employee
{
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Variables to be used in the employee store.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    private String employeeName;
    private int employeeId;
    private String employeeEmail;
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Name:        Constructors.
//  Description:
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    public Employee(String employeeName, int employeeId, String employeeEmail) 
    {
        this.employeeName = employeeName;
        this.employeeId = employeeId;
        this.employeeEmail = employeeEmail;
    }
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Overloading the constructor for the use with userInputByName method.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    public Employee(String employeeName) 
    {
        this.employeeName = employeeName;
    }
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Name:   Getters.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    public String getEmployeeEmail() 
    {
        return employeeEmail;
    }

    public String getEmployeeName() 
    {
        return employeeName;
    }
    public int getEmployeeId() 
    {
        return employeeId;
    }
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Name:   Setters.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    public void setEmployeeEmail(String employeeEmail) 
    {
        this.employeeEmail = employeeEmail;
    }
    public void setEmployeeName(String employeeName) 
    {
        this.employeeName = employeeName;
    }
    public void setEmployeeId(int employeeId)
    {
        this.employeeId = employeeId;
    }

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Name:   toString.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    public String toString() 
    {
        return "\t\t\tEmployee\n" +
                "********************************************************************\n"+
                "Employee Name: "+ employeeName +"\n"+ 
                "Employee Id: " + employeeId +"\n"+  
                "Employee Email: " + employeeEmail;
    }
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
}

Delete method

public Employee remove(Employee key) {
        // Remove the Employee by name.
        if (map.containsKey(key))
            return map.remove(key); // if it is there remove and return.
        else
            return null; // if its not there return nothing.
    }

Hashmap declaration

HashMap<String, Employee> map;
    private static Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);

    public EmployeeStore() {
        map = new HashMap<String, Employee

SearchByName

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // Name: Search by Name.
    // //---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    public Employee searchByName(String employeeName) {
        Employee employee = map.get(employeeName);
        System.out.println(employee);
        return employee;
    }

UserInput

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//  Name:        userInputByName.
//  Description: This method is used in the MainApp to give the user capability to search by name.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    public static Employee userInputByName() 
    {
        // String temp is for some reason needed. If it is not included
        // The code will not execute properly.
        String temp = keyboard.nextLine();
        Employee e = null;
        System.out.println("Please enter the Employee Name:");
        String employeeName = keyboard.nextLine();

        return e = new Employee(employeeName);

    }

Adding to the hashmap

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//   Create a Store named Store and add Employee's to the Store.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        EmployeeStore Store = new EmployeeStore();
        Store.add(new Employee("James O' Carroll", 18, "hotmail.com"));

        Store.add(new Employee("Andy Carroll", 1171, "yahoo.com"));

        Store.add(new Employee("Luis Suarez", 7, "gmail.com"));

Answer 1

Your Hashmap is declared as HashMap<String, Employee> map .

If you want to remove something from it then you need to pass in a String , not an Employee . Try something like:

public Employee remove(String key) 
{
    return map.remove(key);
}

There is no need to check if the HashMap contains the key before removing it. The method will return null for you.

edit: I'm surprised that this didn't throw a compile-time error for you.

edit2: OK. So you are creating your Employee object and then passing that into your add() method. That's fine, but you need to have your add() method match the remove() method that you made. So if you are doing EmployeeStore.remove(<employee.getEmployeeName()) then you should make your add() method look like this:

public Employee add(Employee input)
{
    return map.put(input.getEmployeeName(), input);
}

This function does return an Employee object if there were previously one stored under that Key , but you can choose to ignore that value. Having your add() method like this should make it match your remove() method. Since you have an employee ID number you could even change your Key to that integer since it will probably be more unique than a name.