Not reading a string

Question

I'm trying to teach myself java so I thought up this little program. It sets the value correctly but for some reason they strings don't match.
* @(#)BasicMove.java
* BasicMove Applet application
* @author
* @version 1.00 2010/7/5
import java.awt.*;
import java.applet.*;
public class BasicMove extends Applet {
     TextField input;
     String input1;
     int xPos = 0, yPos = 0;
     public void init() {
     input = new TextField( 10 );
     add( input );
     public void paint(Graphics g) {
          g.drawString("0", xPos, yPos );
     public void play() {
          input1 = input.getText();
          if(input1 == "NORTH" ) {
          yPos += 4;
          repaint();
          if(input1 == "SOUTH" ) {
     yPos -= 4;
          repaint();
          if(input1 == "EAST" ) {
          xPos += 4;
          repaint();
          if(input1 == "WEST" ) {
          xPos += 4;
          repaint();
     public boolean action( Event event, Object o ) {
          play();
          return true;
}

Answer 1

STARZ wrote:
I'm trying to teach myself java so I thought up this little program. 1) Applets are a bad place to start learning Java. String comparison tests can be done in a command line program. Anything involving a GUI is an order of magnitude more complex than a command line program. An Applet is another order of magnitude more complicated than a typical non-applet GUI.
2) When posting code, code snippets, XML/HTML or input/output, please use the code tags. The code tags protect the indentation and formatting of the sample. To use the code tags, select the sample and click the CODE button.
This is how the posted code would look, inside code tags.
* @(#)BasicMove.java
* BasicMove Applet application
* @author
* @version 1.00 2010/7/5
import java.awt.*;
import java.applet.*;
public class BasicMove extends Applet {
     TextField input;
     String input1;
     int xPos = 0, yPos = 0;
     public void init() {
     input = new TextField( 10 );
     add( input );
     public void paint(Graphics g) {
          g.drawString("0", xPos, yPos );
     public void play() {
          input1 = input.getText();
          if(input1 == "NORTH" ) {
          yPos += 4;
          repaint();
          if(input1 == "SOUTH" ) {
         yPos -= 4;
          repaint();
             if(input1 == "EAST" ) {
          xPos += 4;
          repaint();
          if(input1 == "WEST" ) {
          xPos += 4;
          repaint();
     public boolean action( Event event, Object o ) {
          play();
          return true;
}