Question

I have the following code and the return is confusing me. I am new to java and not exactly sure why it is returning the way it is. Any help would be great.

When the data has PE846 and A846 it returns engine, ambo and engineambo. I’m looking to return only engineambo.

    String soundString = "";

    if (data.contains("PE846")) {
        soundString += "engine";
        betaString = "Engine : ";
        sign = engine;
    }
    if (data.contains("A846")) {
        soundString += "ambo";
        betaString += "Ambo : ";
        sign = ambo;
    }
    if (data.contains("MD846")) {
        soundString += "medic";
        betaString += "Medic";
        sign = medic;
    }

    log.info(betaString + " Alerted");

    {
        new AudioPlayer("sounds/" + soundString + ".wav").start();
        log.info(soundString);
    }   

Answer 1

You can try tracing through your code line-by-line. If it contains PE846 and A846 (but not MD846), then it will run the first two conditional blocks, thereby executing as follows:

if (data.contains("PE846")){   // The string does contain PE846, per your question
    soundString += "engine";   // soundString = "" + "engine" = "engine"
    betaString = "Engine : ";  // betaString = "Engine : "
    sign = engine;             // sign = engine
}
if (data.contains("A846")){    // The string does contain A846, per your question
    soundString += "ambo";     // soundString = "engine" + "ambo"
    betaString += "Ambo : ";   // betaString = "Engine : " + "Ambo : " = "Engine : Ambo : "
    sign = ambo;               // sign = ambo (overwriting the previous value, "engine")
}
if (data.contains("MD846")){   // The string does not contain MD846, per your question
    soundString += "medic";    // not executed
    betaString += "Medic";     // not executed
    sign = medic;              // not executed
}

log.info(betaString + " Alerted");  // betaString + " Alerted" => "Engine : Ambo : Alerted"
{
    new AudioPlayer("sounds/"+ soundString +".wav").start();
    log.info(soundString);          // soundString => "engineambo"
}