Converting characters

Question

I want to convert a character in this program but it won't let me. I don't understand because it lets me do it in another similar program. I tried to change it around as much as possible to get it like the other program to try and nail the problem but I can't do it.
public class Square
private int height = 0;
private int width = 0;
private int surfaceArea = 0;
public void computeSurfaceArea() throws Exception
  char aChar;
  System.out.print("Enter the height ");
  aChar = (char)System.in.read();
  System.in.read();  System.in.read();
  height = Integer.parseInt(aChar);
  System.out.print("the height is  " + height);
  System.out.print("Enter the width ");
  aChar = (char)System.in.read();
  System.in.read();  System.in.read();
  width = Integer.parseInt(aChar);
  System.out.print("the width is  " + width);
  surfaceArea = height * width;
  System.out.print("The area is " + surfaceArea + "\n");
}

Answer 1

Try the following:
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.LineNumberReader;
public class Square {
     private int height = 0;
     private int width = 0;
     private int surfaceArea = 0;
     public void computeSurfaceArea() throws NumberFormatException, IOException {
          LineNumberReader r = new LineNumberReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
          System.out.print("Enter the height: ");
          System.out.flush();
          height = Integer.parseInt(r.readLine());
          System.out.println("the height is  " + height);
          System.out.print("Enter the width: ");
          System.out.flush();
          width = Integer.parseInt(r.readLine());
          System.out.println("The width is  " + width);
          surfaceArea = height * width;
          System.out.println("The area is " + surfaceArea + "\n");
     public static final void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
          new Square().computeSurfaceArea();
}