Comparing input value to array value for equality

Question

Hi all,
I'm fairly new to java and I am finding this forum to be a great resource. I am learning more by seeing the problems others are having and the solutions. thanks ahead of time for the help.
Here is my problem.
I am using InputStreamReader and Buffered Reader to take keyboard input and add to a string ( lets call it name)
I then search an array for a match
for ( int i=0; i<array.length; i++
if ( name == array[i] )
blah blah blah
I can compile and run but my input never matches a value I know is in the array.
Do I need to do something to the input string to make it usable?
Any insight would be much appreciated

Answer 1

When comparing objects (including Strings) you usually want to use obj1.equals(obj2), rather than obj1 == obj2. The equals method uses semantics defined by each object to determine whether the contents are "equal". For Strings it compares the characters, for a MyEmployee class it could compare employee IDs or names, birthdates, and whatever else you decide is important.
The == operator, when used on references (anything that's not a primitive like int, float, etc.), tests whether both references refer to the same object. In your case, name and array[j] may have the same contents, but they're stored in two different String objects, so the == test fails.
Oh, and when you post code, use [ code ] blocks to format it, and don't use i as an array index (gives you italics) See
http://forum.java.sun.com/faq.jsp#messageformat