Java regex

Question

Hi, I'm pretty new to Java, coming from a JavaScript background. I'm currently doing (or trying) a few challenges from a Java book that I have (Java Programming - For The Absolute Beginner). The challenge that I'm currently attemping asks me to write an application that calculates a 5% tax for any given amount, the problem is... I want to make my program accept both integers and real numbers. I thought it would be pretty straightforward to write two regular expressions, one to match an integer (1-99) and one to match a real number (0-99.0-99), and then, depending on whether the user input was a match to an integer or a real number; convert the match to either an int or float, then assign it to the appropriate variable type instance, I'm having a few problems :)
Here's my code (I know it contains loads of errors, lol) -
Challenge01.java
import java.io.*;
import java.text.DecimalFormat;
import java.util.regex.*;
public class Challenge01 {
  public static void main(String args[]) {
    //Declaration
    int anyPrice;
    float fivePercentTax;
    //Assignment
    anyPrice = 0;
    fivePercentTax = 0.05F;
    String value;
    //Regex
    Pattern intPattern = Pattern.compile("d");
    Pattern floatPattern = Pattern.compile("d.d+");
    //Declaration of a buffer
    BufferedReader reader;
    //Create an instance of the buffer
    reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
    //Format the data
    DecimalFormat twoDigits = new DecimalFormat("0.00");
    //Prompt for user input
     System.out.print("\t Enter a number:\t");
      value = reader.readLine();
      if value == intPattern {
         anyPrice = Integer.parseInt(value);
      else anyPrice = Float.parseFloat(value);
    System.out.print("\t" anyPrice);
}Thanks in advance for any help :)

Answer 1

Saying "it has problems" doesn't mean much to anybody. What does it do and what it is supposed to do?
You may want to take a look at your regular expressions.
Pattern intPattern = Pattern.compile("d");Will match the letter 'd' once. You have to escape the 'd' using \\d in order for it to match digits. Secondly, add a '+' to make it match one or more characters instead of only one.
Also, this line
else anyPrice = Float.parseFloat(value);won't work. An int cannot be assigned a float value.
Edited by: codingMonkey on 2008/10/15 03:59