Cannot find Symbol method charAt(int)?

Question

I keep recieving this error when I compile the program:

error: cannot find symbol

if(letter == charAt(0).getTheword())

symbol:   method charAt(int)

The word is an arrayList and letter is a keyboard input. What am I doing wrong and what should be changed?

Answer 1

charAt is a method that operates on a String.

So example usage would be:

String s = "abc";
System.out.println(s.charAt(0)); //prints out 'a';

Answer 2

You need to change condition to

if(letter == getTheword().charAt(0))

ie string should be before the method charAt()

Answer 3

charAt() is a method that only works on Strings, as described in the documentation. It returns the char at the given index. Let's look at a simple example:

String word = "Cow";
char letter = word.charAt(0);
System.out.println(letter);

This will print out the letter (char) "C" to the console, since the letter 'C' is at index 0 of the word "Cow".

So the part where you're going wrong is that you're not specifying on which String you want to call the charAt() method.

Answer 4

Try using get instead.

charAt is a method that's suppoused to operate on strings, while you are operating on an arrayList.

In context:

if(letter == <your arraylist>.get(0).getTheword())

Answer 5

Use this code.... Your not using a string to use charAt

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class Solution {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);

        System.out.print("Enter a character: ");

        ArrayList<String> words = new ArrayList<String>();

        words.add("Test");

        char ch = sc.nextLine().charAt(0);

        if(ch == words.get(0).charAt(0)){

            System.out.println("Match");
        }else{
            System.out.println("Do not Match");
        }
        sc.close();
    }

}