Question

I took a text file and put it in one array. However, I want to search for a String (word) within the array. In my case I wanted to use the scanner to get input from the user, then search for a string match in the array. How can one achieve such a task?

public static void main(String[]args) throws IOException
{
    //Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
    //String stringSearch = scan.nextLine();
    List<String> words = new ArrayList<String>();
    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("File1.txt"));
    String line;
    while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                    words.add(line);        
        }
        reader.close();
        System.out.println(words);
}

My output:

[CHAPTER I. Down the Rabbit-Hole, Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the, bank, and of having nothing to do:]

Answer 1

You can use the .contains() function from List. It will use the .equals() method of the parameter on each element

words.contains("your_string")

Just realized you are saving one line per index, and not one word. In this case:

for(String sLine : words) {
    if (sLine.contains("your_string")) {
         System.out.println("Got a match");
         break;
     }
 }