Question

I am trying to ask if a list contains a certain string.

public void searchList(Scanner scan, Object list){


    System.out.println("Search for element:\t");
    String p = scan.nextLine();

    if (list.contains(p))
        System.out.println(p + " is in the list");
    else
        System.out.println(p + " is not in the list.");
}

I am getting:

Prog7Methods.java:23: cannot find symbol
symbol  : method contains(java.lang.String)
location: class java.lang.Object
        if (list.contains(p))

I do not understand! I have imported java.io.* and java.util.* how does it not recognize this?

Answer 1

You need to declare the list as a List. Instead of

public void searchList(Scanner scan, Object list){

use

public void searchList(Scanner scan, List list){

or even better:

 public void searchList(Scanner scan, List<String> list){