Thread: Boolean Method Test Problem

Hi, I am having troube with returning a boolean

	public boolean check(String name, String date){
 
		boolean test = false;
 
		for(int i=0; i<myList.size(); i++){
			System.out.println("TEST: : " + "sent in name is " + name + "and stored name is" + myList.get(i).fileName);
			System.out.println("TEST: : " + "sent in date is " + date + "and stored date is" + myList.get(i).fileDate);
 
 
			if(name == myList.get(i).fileName && date == myList.get(i).fileDate){
				test = true;		// if found then return true
			}
			else{
				test = false; 	// if not found then return false
			}
		}
 
		System.out.println("TEST IS " + test);
 
		return test;
	}

this always returns false even though when i print out the lines to test I see that the name sent in and stored are the same, and the date sent in and stored are the same

i dont understand why it dosnt return true or false depending on the check that is made.

Thanks

name == myList.get(i).fileName

Don't use == to compare strings or other objects, use their equals() method instead.

if(name.equals(myList.get(i).filename) // etc

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== tests two references to see if they refer to the same thing. That's not the same thing as testing whether the things they refer to (the strings) have the same characters in the same order which is what .equals() does.

oo yea I remember hearing that before.

Thanks for that =), works great.

You're welcome.