Question

I’ve been trying different methods for converting a user string input into an int I could compare and build an “if-then” statement. Every time I tried testing it, it just threw exception. Can anyone look at my Java code and help me find the way? I’m clueless about it (also a noob in programming). If I’m breaking any rules please let me know I’m new here. Thank you.

Anyway, here is the code:

 System.out.println("Sorry couldn't find your user profile " + userName + ".");
 System.out.println("Would you like to create a new user profile now? (Enter Y for yes), (Enter N for no and exit).");
 try {
     BufferedReader answer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
     String addNewUser = answer.readLine();
     Character i = new Character(addNewUser.charAt(0));
     String s = i.toString();
     int answerInDecimal = Integer.parseInt(s);
     System.out.println(answerInDecimal);
 }
 catch(Exception e) {
     System.out.println("You've mistyped the answer.");
 e.getMessage();
 }

Answer 1

It seems like you are trying to convert the string (which should be a single character, Y or N) into its character value, and then retrieve the numerical representation of the character.

If you want to turn Y or N into their decimal representation, you have to perform a cast to int:

BufferedReader answer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
String addNewUser = answer.readLine();
char i = addNewUser.charAt(0);
int integerChar = (int) i;       //The important part
System.out.println(integerChar);

This will return the integer representation of the character that the user input. It may also be useful to call the String.toUpperCase() method in order to ensure that different inputs of Y/N or y/n do not give different values.

However, you could also do an if-else based upon the character itself, rather than converting it to an integer.

BufferedReader answer = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
String addNewUser = answer.readLine();
char i = addNewUser.toUpperCase().charAt(0);
if (i == 'Y') {
    //Handle yes
} else if (i == 'N') {
    //Handle no
} else {
    System.out.println("You've mistyped the answer.");
}