Need help to find something

Question

Okay i have a small problem maybe you could assist me .
I am not quite sure how the indexof() fucntion workS I have a void method which is meant to look into the hashmap and then return any values to the screen ,
so say a person typed in computing then it would have to return all the courses with comptuting in it
Im just wondering how do I search through it here is what I have so far ill paste it maybe one of you can help me out with this last method
* @author (your name)
import java.util.* ;
public class CourseDirectory
private HashMap dir ;
public CourseDirectory()
dir = new HashMap() ;
public void add( Course c )
dir . put ( c . getcourseCode() , c . getcourseName() ) ;
public String lookup( String code )
String result = ( String ) dir . get ( code );
return result ;
public String toString()
String result = "\nCourseDirectory\n\n" ;
Set codes = dir . keySet() ;
Iterator it = codes . iterator() ;
while( it . hasNext() )
String word = ( String )it . next() ;
String definition = ( String ) dir . get( word ) ;
result += word + " : " + definition + "\n" ;
return result ;
public void findCoursesLike( String descriptionContains)
in this method I have to check the courses , which are entered in another class I just cant figure out a way to check through and the indexof is giving me some slight problems .
Weoll ne help is much appreachiated

Answer 1

so i take it no one is willing to help me , I dont want code snippits I just want to know in some minor detail how how the indexof() works