Thread: java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 0

I am having trouble with my program. I finished it but, I can not get the begging to cooperate. I need to take a users input if they would like to play a game. I have to use the charAt method to take the first character of their input and if it is a N or n then the program ends. Otherwise it continues. It works but, if the enter key is pressed then the program crashes and I receive the Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 0
at java.lang.String.charAt(String.java:687)
at Ex2.main(Ex2.java:21)

Can anyone help me correct this? I have to us charAt
Here is my code (just the part where I am having issues)

      String input;
      char answer;
 
 
       System.out.print("Would you like to play the guessing game? ");
       input = keys.nextLine();       
       answer = input.charAt(0);
 
         if(answer == 'n'|| answer =='N')
         {
          System.exit(0);
         }

The String class has a method, length(), that tells you how long the String is. Consider checking this first before trying to extract a character that doesn't exist.

So if I added something like this to check the length of the string, where would I need to add it to prevent the crash? Would I had a comparison to my if statement?

int size;
size = input.length();

Originally Posted by KristopherP

So if I added something like this to check the length of the string, where would I need to add it to prevent the crash?

// your code goes here
int size;
size = input.length();

You would need to use an if block, similar to what you're doing above, and it would make most sense to check for the size immediately before the error, putting your code where you extract your first character inside the if block.

I tried your suggestion with

 if( size > 0)
         {
           answer = input.charAt(0);
         }

When I get to the next part it tells me answer is not initialized

 if(answer == 'n'|| answer =='N')
         {
          System.exit(0);
         }

Originally Posted by KristopherP

I tried your suggestion with

 if( size > 0)
         {
           answer = input.charAt(0);
         }

When I get to the next part it tells me answer is not initialized

 if(answer == 'n'|| answer =='N')
         {
          System.exit(0);
         }

You only want to get to the "next part" if the first if is true. Consider nesting your if blocks, putting the if (answer == 'n'... bit inside the if (size > 0) bit.

I did the nested if and it worked. Thanks for your help