Question

So what I’m trying to do is to fill an array of 100 items with 30 names from a file using Scanner = new Scanner(new File("list.txt")). It needs to use a sentinel of "DONE" to end the loop found at the bottom of the file.

How would I do that? array[arraySize] = value(); gives me a type mismatch

public class List
{
  public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException
  {
    double array[] = new double[100];
    int arraySize = 0;
    String value;
    String sentinel = "DONE";

    Scanner inFile = new Scanner(new File("list.txt"));
    value = inFile.next();
    while (value != sentinel) 
    {
      array[arraySize] = value();
      arraySize++;
      value = inFile.next();
    }
  }
}

D’oh….those mistakes are shameful lol. Thanks all got it to work =]

Answer 1

A few issues, you need to change these lines from:

double array[] = new double[100]; // can't assign string to double
                                  // (since you said "30 names", I assume
                                  //  you aren't trying to get numbers from
                                  //  the file)
...
while (value != sentinel) // this performs pointer comparison, whereas you want
                          // string comparison
...
    array[arraySize] = value(); // value is a variable, not a function

To:

String array[] = new String[100];
...
while (!value.equals(sentinel))
...
    array[arraySize] = value;

Note: Additionally, as good practice, you might want to add some defensive programming checks to augment your while loop terminating condition. (Consider what happens when the input file does not contain a sentinel)