Problem with if/else statement for adventure game

Question

Can anyone offer a hint as to why I am getting a null value printed out in the last line. I have comments that indicate what progress or validation step has occurred to move forward. There is something obviously not working with my user input if/else block. It's supposed to the user input, n,s,e, or w and execute the code, nextRoom = current.get*(); * - referring to whatever direction is specified by the user. For instance if the user enters "e", then this code is executed ... nextRoom = current.getEast(); and the players' new room is set to this room: player1.setCurrentRoom(nextRoom).
That is not what is currently happened as validated by the last line System.out.println(player1.getCurrentRoom()); which prints null; This must be something obvious no?
Room r1 = new Room();  //instantiates new room r1
        r1.setName("Hallway");  //sets r1's name to Hallway
        r1.setDescription("Long and dark.  There are exits to the north, east and west");
        Room r2 = new Room();  //new room2, etc...
        r2.setName("Bathroom");
        r2.setDescription("Bathroom stinks. There are no doors other than the entry");
        Room r3 = new Room();
        r3.setName("Kitchen");
        r3.setDescription("This is where the food is cooked");
        Room r4 = new Room(); 
        r4.setName("Master Bedroom");
        r4.setDescription("Bedroom of the master");     
        r1.setEast(r2); // sets r2 east of r1
        r1.setWest(r3); //sets r3 west of r1
        r1.setNorth(r4); //sets r4 north of r1
        System.out.print("The room east of r1 is: ");  // this is simply a check to verify that it has set the room properly and it does
        System.out.println(r1.getEast());               
        System.out.printf("You are currently in the %s", r1.getName());
        System.out.println();          //another validation step
        System.out.println("There are exits on the north end of the\n" +
                            "hallway and midway on both sides\n");
        System.out.println("To move you can type the following: \n"+
                "(n) to move north\n" +
                "(e) to move east\n" +
                "(w) to move west\n" +
                "(s) to move south\n");
        player1.setCurrentRoom(r1);
        System.out.print("You are currently in ");
        System.out.println(player1.getCurrentRoom()); //this prints out the correct value for current Room, which is the Hallway
        Room current = player1.getCurrentRoom();     
        System.out.println(current);  //as a double check this does print out the correct value for current, which is the Hallway
        System.out.println("Where would like to go?  Your choices are east, west, and north.\n" +
                "Enter e, n, or w");
        Scanner ns = new Scanner(System.in);       
        String input = ns.next();
        Room nextRoom = null; 
        if (input == "e") {
            nextRoom = current.getEast();
        else if (input == "n") {
            nextRoom = current.getNorth();
        else if (input == "w") {
            nextRoom = current.getWest();
        else if (input == null) {
            System.out.println("Illegal Move");
        player1.setCurrentRoom(nextRoom);  //somehow this is setting the current room value to null
        System.out.println(player1.getCurrentRoom());  //this prints out null

Answer 1

I initially thought of that but my IDE (netbeans) gives me the incompatible data types (expects boolean, gets string) error when I use input = rather than input (==.). I really want to avoid asking the dumb ass java questions (I should have posted the new to java forum) but how do you set this up if Scanner is expecting a String, my input variable is String and the if statement is expecting a boolean instead of a String?
Scanner ns = new Scanner(System.in);       
String input = ns.next();
if (input = "e" ) {
            nextRoom = current.getEast();
        else if (input = "n" ) {
            nextRoom = current.getNorth();
        else if (input = "w" ) {
            nextRoom = current.getWest();
        else if (input = null) {
            System.out.println("Illegal Move");
        player1.setCurrentRoom(nextRoom);  //somehow this is setting the current room value to null
        System.out.println(player1.getCurrentRoom());  //this prints out null