Java: String from scanner.next() and .equals() comparison failure

Question

I have an input read from scanner, which I am then comparing to a hard coded string variable

String MOVE = input.next();  // I type in "MOVE N"
MOVE = MOVE.trim();
System.out.print(MOVE.equals("MOVE N"));

This returned false. I added trim()

String MOVE = input.next(); // I type in "MOVE N"
System.out.print(MOVE.equals("MOVE N"));

Still false.

Any ideas? Thanks

Answer 1

You probably want nextLine() . The next() method will just return the next token , which by default will be the next word (ie it breaks at space).

Next time, you should add a call to System.out.println(MOVE); to help you diagnose this - that way you could see that the result is just "MOVE" instead of "MOVE N" . (And then you'd consult the docs for Scanner.next() ...)

Additionally, I strongly recommend that you start following Java naming conventions for your variables - so move instead of MOVE for example.

Answer 2

String MOVE = input.nextLine ();  // I type in "MOVE N"
MOVE = MOVE.trim ();
System.out.print (MOVE.equals ("MOVE N"));