Question

I am trying to search through a Java LinkedList that uses a custom object called Name. I need to search on first name (My compareTo method in Name already compares last names because I need to use it to sort by last name). Name has an observer method called getFirstName().

I am not having any success in accessing first name from my LinkedList. This is what I want to do but this (obviously) doesn’t work.

if (iterator.next().getFirstName().equals(inputSearch))

Can someone point me in the right direction?

This is the full method I am currently trying to write:

// Creating a method to search for a first name
  static void searchName()
{
  Scanner inData = new Scanner(System.in);

  // Label to request input from user
  System.out.println("Enter the first name that you would like to search for:");

  // Setting variable to capture input
  String inputSearch = inData.next();

  // Creating an iterator to search through the list
  iterator = list.iterator(); 

  // While loop to search each entry
  while (iterator.hasNext())
  {
      if (iterator.next().getFirstName().equals(inputSearch))
      {
          System.out.println("MATCH FOUND: " + iterator.next());
      }
  }
} 

Answer 1

You’re calling iterator.next() twice. The second time will advance past the item you want. Instead, save the return value from the first call to iterator.next() and use that.

  while (iterator.hasNext())
  {
      Name item = (Name) iterator.next();

      if (item.getFirstName().equals(inputSearch))
      {
          System.out.println("MATCH FOUND: " + item);
      }
  }

or, more idiomatically

  for (Name item : list)
  {
      if (item.getFirstName().equals...
  }