Question

I wanted to know if there was a way to shorten this if statement with the “.equals” so that I can test things in one line, instead of multiple if statements.

This is an excerpt my current long winded code. (This is what I want to shorten)

if (queryArray[1].equals("+")) { 
     System.out.println("Got +");
 } else if (queryArray[1].equals("-")) {
     System.out.println("Got -");
 } else if (queryArray[1].equals("*")) {
     System.out.println("Got *");
 }

I tried doing this (Does not work) to reduce the number of lines needed.

if (queryArray[1].equals("+","-","*")) { 
             System.out.println("Got +");
         }

And even (Does not work):

if (queryArray[1].equals("+" || "-" || "*")) { 
         System.out.println("Got +");
     }

Also, I know about the or syntax “||” within if statements, however I’m looking to shorten it within the “.equals()” method.

Is there any way to shorten this code? Thank you.

Answer 1

Since you’re only doing single-character comparisons, you can do a switch on queryArray[1].charAt(0).

switch (queryArray[1].charAt(0)) {
    case '+':
      // plus thing
      break;
    case '-':
      // minus thing
      break
    // ... and so on
}

Or if you’re using Java 7, you can switch directly on the string.