I want to compare an arrayList object with a String, ignoring case. How can I do this?

Question

Following code written in Java

public static void main (String [] args) throws Exception
{
    ordListe ol = new ordListe();
    ol.lesBok("navn.text");
    ol.leggTilOrd("hello");
    ol.leggTilOrd("Hello");

Is my main method. This is about reading from file and adding to a arraylist(dictionary). ''Hello'' and "hello" is supposed to be the same word, and in the code under, it should increase the count of that word.

for (int i = 0; i < ordListe.size(); i++)
    {
        if (ordListe.toString().contains(s))
        {
            if (ordListe.get(i).toString().equalsIgnoreCase(s))
            {
                ord.oekAntall();
                System.out.println("'" + s + "' That word is found and there are " + ord.hentAntall() + " of that word now in dictionary.");
                break;
            }
        }

        else
        {
            Ord ny = new Ord(s);
            ordListe.add(ny);
            System.out.println("'" + s + "' This word is added. " + ny.hentAntall() + " of this word in dictionary.");
            break;
        }
    }

So this is a part of my code. From the main method I add words like ol.leggTilOrd("hello"); leggTilOrd is my method where the code right above is taken from. This is the part of the code that adds words to the dictionary/arrayList and checks if inputwords already exists. I have no problem with anything else than the specific if (ordListe.get(i).toString().equalsIgnoreCase(s)) part. If a word exist in the arrayList, I'm supposed to increase the count of that word. If not, I add the word in the arraylist (ordListe). The problem is that even if I add ol.leggTilOrd("hello") or ol.leggTilOrd("Hello") ; with capital 'H', I can't get to recognize it as the same word even if I use the statements above. How do I do this, any other possibilites? This is my last possible effort, after many attempts earlier.

If there are anything questionable above, just tell me.

Answer 1

Change both strings to lower case before comparing and then comapare..it will help you and is easier!!! Use toLower function and then compare

Answer 2

The problem is this line:

if (ordListe.toString().contains(s))

Because 1) you do not compare the lowercase or uppercase versions of the two strings and 2) you probably not overrided toString so it returns the items in the list as you probably expect. Put this function in your ordListe class assuming that your ordliste extends arraylist:

public boolean containsIgnoreCase(String item) {
     for(int i = 0; i < size(); i++) {
           if (get(i).toString().equalsIgnoreCase(item)) {
               return true;
           }
     }

     return false;
}

Now you can call containsIgnoreCase to determinate if there is a specific item in the list ignoring the case