Thread: How do I make my program accept letters?

Ok, my problem is you cannot declare a switch with the type string or char, so how do I make it to where I type a letter, and it will display "Test complete" here is the code I have constructed,

import java.util.Scanner;
public class Text_Test {
 
	/**
	 * Author Tyler
	 */
 
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
		System.out.println("Type Some Letters...");
		String Letters = keyboard.toString();
		switch(Letters)
		{
		default:
			System.out.println("Test Completed");
		}
 
 
 
 
	}
 
}

How will I make this work?

make it to where I type a letter, and it will display "Test complete"

What are the conditions you need to test that need to be true?
You have read a single character
the character is in the range: a-z and A-Z?

The String class has a method to determine the number of characters it contains
and for getting characters that can be tested.
The Character class has methods for testing the contents of single characters.

Use an if test with the results of the above tests to determine if your conditions are true.

Anything typed from a - z, but how would I make it to where I can type it, and get an answer? I have always used switch statements but those only work with int types.

how would I make it to where I can type it, and get an answer?

The simple answer is: You write a program.
You read it in
You test it
You put out an answer depending on the test.

You could use a switch statement, but I think you'd have to have 26 case statements for the letters.
You can use a char type in a switch as char are a type of integer.

Ok I tried char, her is my code

import java.util.Scanner;
public class Text_Test {
 
	/**
	 * Author Tyler
	 */
 
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);
		System.out.println("Type Some Letters...");
		char Letters = (char) keyboard.nextShort();
		switch (Letters)
		{
		default:
			System.out.println("Test Complete");
		}
 
 
 
 
 
	}
 
}

And when I type letters I get this error

Exception in thread "main" java.util.InputMismatchException
	at java.util.Scanner.throwFor(Scanner.java:909)
	at java.util.Scanner.next(Scanner.java:1530)
	at java.util.Scanner.nextShort(Scanner.java:2030)
	at java.util.Scanner.nextShort(Scanner.java:1989)
	at Text_Test.main(Text_Test.java:11)

What did I do wrong? I'm using an IDE

What did you type in? What is valid input for the nextShort() method?
Why does the nextShort method throw that exception?

Read the API doc for the Scanner class's nextShort method.

One thing i personaly see is that u dont need the default in there

The problem with nextInt() is it won't like you typing in letters. It wants numeric characters 0-9.
Not many users know the ASCII codes for the letters.

To get a char, I think you'll need to read a String and use one of the String class's methods to get its characters.

Thanks for the help guys, but your are allowed to switch on a string, my real problem was my IDE was outta date :/ so it always came back at me with an error, when there was no error at all..

I take it you are using jdk 1.7
You seem to have forgotten to tell anyone.

Yes, Yes I have. But I do have one last question, I plan to show this program to kids a school, but the java version on the computers at our school have jre 1.5... Would It be compatible?

What program? You did not post the program's the current code.
The compiler has options about version levels that could allow you to generate a version of a class file that is executable with a 1.5 version java program.

Originally Posted by Norm

What program? You did not post the program's the current code.
The compiler has options about version levels that could allow you to generate a version of a class file that is executable with a 1.5 version java program.

Thank you, I will look into that, and I'm making my first Java program, that's what I need help with, but its fixed now, so thank you!