Thread: If and else if statements???

hey so I'm relatively new to java (2 weeks or so) and I have latched onto the idea of if and else if statements. I made this program to output the details of an animal, which include name, height, how many legs it has and whether or not it has a tail. For the last statement, I tried using an if statement to make it choose which line to output, based on whether hasTail is true, or false. However this doesn't work for some reason, and just outputs that a human has a tail, no matter what. Please help!
here is my code so far:

public class HomeProject1a{
    public static void main (String [] args){
        String name = "Human";
        int numLegs = 2;
        double height = 1.8;
        boolean hasTail = false;
 
        System.out.println("The animal is a " + name);
        System.out.println("A " + name + " has " + numLegs + " legs");
        System.out.println("A " + name + " is " + height + " meters tall");
        if (hasTail = true) System.out.println("A " + name + " has a tail");
        else if (hasTail = false) System.out.println("A " + name + " doesn't have a tail");
 
    }
 
}

and when I run this file (shift - f6 in netbeans IDE) this is what the output is:

The animal is a Human
A Human has 2 legs
A Human is 1.8 meters tall
A Human has a tail

if you can help thanks so much!
skeptile

In java you dont use boolean = true/false, you use (boolean) for true and (!boolean) for false...

change your to last lines to this

if (hasTail) System.out.println("A " + name + " has a tail");
else if (!hasTail) System.out.println("A " + name + " doesn't have a tail");

Yes u can't use = In that statement cause that would mean you are Re-assigning it with either the true or false , I could use == (equals ) , but like the other replies said , u don't need the operator

Also, there is no need for the if-else-if statement. Just use if-else. for example :

if (hasTail)
System.out.println("A " + name + " has a tail");
else
System.out.println("A " + name + " doesn't have a tail");

OK thanks so much for the help guys. I looked at someone else's code, and they had the double equals sign == and when I tried that it worked. However I already want to have tidy code (even though I'm just starting) so what would be the tidiest way to do this? I'm thinking the !hasTail and hasTail way, but I'm not sure. Also, I did realise that I didn't need the second if, it's just that I'm trying to get the hang of multiple if else if statements.
Thanks!