Problems with writing to file, and with ActionListener.

Question

I have been trying to write a Payroll Division type program as my school Computer Science Project. However, I have a few problems with it...
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
import java.util.StringTokenizer;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Personnel implements ActionListener  {    
         JFrame GUIFrame;
         JLabel ID, Line, OKText,AnswerField;
         JTextField IDField, LineField;
         JButton OK;
         JPanel GUIPanel;
         int trialCounter=0;
         final static int employeeNumber = 7;
         final static int maxValue = ((employeeNumber*4)-1);
        //Number of employees, which would be in real life passed by the Payroll division.   
        public static String [][] sortHelp = new String [employeeNumber+1][3];    /** Creates a new instance of Personnel */       
        public Personnel() {
          GUIFrame = new JFrame("PersonnelSoft"); //create title header.
                 GUIFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                 GUIFrame.setSize(new Dimension(100, 140));
                 GUIPanel= new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 2));
                 addWidgets();
                 GUIFrame.getRootPane().setDefaultButton(OK);
                 GUIFrame.getContentPane().add(GUIPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
                 GUIFrame.pack();
                GUIFrame.getContentPane().setVisible(true);
                GUIFrame.setVisible(true);
        private void addWidgets() {
              ID = new JLabel ("Please enter your employee Identification Number:", SwingConstants.LEFT);
              IDField = new JTextField ("ID", 5);
              Line = new JLabel ("Please enter the line of your payroll with which you have concerns:", SwingConstants.LEFT);
              LineField = new JTextField ("###", 2);
              OKText = new JLabel ("Click OK when you have verified the validity of your request", SwingConstants.LEFT);
              OK = new JButton ("OK");
              OK.setVerticalTextPosition(AbstractButton.CENTER);
              OK.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_I);
              AnswerField = new JLabel("The Result of your Querie will go here", SwingConstants.LEFT);
              GUIPanel.add(ID);
              GUIPanel.add(IDField);
              GUIPanel.add(Line);
              GUIPanel.add(LineField);
              GUIPanel.add(OKText);
              GUIPanel.add(OK);
              GUIPanel.add(AnswerField);
              OK.addActionListener(this);
              ID.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));
              OKText.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));
              Line.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));
        public static void ArrayCreate() throws IOException {   
          //creates a employeeNumber x 3 array, which will hold all data neccessary for future sorting by employee ID number.      
          int counter = 2;      
          int empCounter = 1;      
          String save;
          //avoid having to waste memory calculating this value every time the for loop begins 
          FileInputStream inFile = new FileInputStream("C:\\Documents and Settings\\Abraham\\humanresource4\\src\\humanresource4\\HR.txt"); 
          BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inFile));
          String line;
                line = in.readLine();
                StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(line);
                save = st.nextToken();
                sortHelp[0][0] = save;
                sortHelp[0][2] = save;
                while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {
                save = st.nextToken();   
                sortHelp[0][1] = save;
                while (counter <= maxValue) {
                line = in.readLine();
                if (((counter - 1) % 4) == 0) {
                st = new StringTokenizer(line);
                sortHelp[empCounter][0] = st.nextToken();
                sortHelp[empCounter][2] = sortHelp[empCounter][0];
                while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {
                save = st.nextToken();   
                sortHelp[empCounter][1] = save;
                empCounter++;
                counter++;
             public static String[] joinString() {
                  String[] tempStorage = new String[employeeNumber+1];
                  int counter;
                  for (counter = 0; counter <= employeeNumber; counter++) {
                       tempStorage[counter] = (sortHelp[counter][1] + sortHelp[counter][0]);
                  return (tempStorage);
             public static String[] sortEm(String[] array, int len)
                 java.util.Arrays.sort(array);
                 return array;
             public static void splitString(String[] splitString){
                int counter;
                for (counter = 0; counter <= employeeNumber; counter++){
                     sortHelp[counter][0]=splitString[counter].substring( 5 );
                     sortHelp[counter][1]=splitString[counter].substring(0,5);
             void setLabel(String newText) {
                 AnswerField.setText(newText);
             void writetoHR(String local) throws IOException {
                  FileOutputStream outFile = new FileOutputStream ("C:\\Documents and Settings\\Abraham\\humanresource4\\src\\humanresource4\\HR2.txt");
                   BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(outFile));
                   out.write(local+"the preceding employee number is not in our database, but has submitted a request. Please sort out the issue");
                   System.exit(0);
             public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
                  boolean flag=false;
                  String local=IDField.getText();
                  int i=0;
                  while((i<=employeeNumber)&&(flag==false)){
                       if (sortHelp[1]==local) {
               flag=true;
          i++;
     trialCounter++;
     if (trialCounter>=3)
          writetoHR(local);
     if (flag==false)
          setLabel("Your ID number does not exist in our records. Verify your ID and try again.");
     else {
          switch (LineField.getText())
          case 04:
               setLabel("Your pay is calculated by multiplying your working hours by the amount per hour. If both of these fields are satisfactory to you, please contact humanresource");
               break;
          case 03:
               setLabel("Hourly amount was calculated by the system, by dividing your yearly pay 26 and then 80.");
               break;
          case 07:
               setLabel("Overtime pay was calculated by multiplying regular hourly pay by 1.1");
               break;
          case 06:
               setLabel("The overtime hourly pay was multiplied by the amount of overtime hours.");
               break;
          case 10:
               setLabel("For holiday hours, your pay is increased by 25%.");
               break;
          case 09:
               setLabel("The holiday hourly pay was multiplied by your amount of holiday hours.");
               break;
          case 11:
               setLabel("Your total pay was calculated by adding all the separate types of payment to your name.");
               break;
          case 17:
               setLabel("Your net pay was found by subtracting the amount withheld from your account");
               break;
          case 19:
               setLabel("Your sick hours remaining were taken from a pool of 96 hours.");
               break;
          default:
               setLabel("Please contact humanresource.");
          break;
private static void CreateAndShowGUI() {
JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
Personnel GUI = new Personnel();
     public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
          String[] temporary = new String[employeeNumber];
          ArrayCreate();
temporary = joinString();
temporary = sortEm(temporary, employeeNumber);
splitString(temporary);
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
CreateAndShowGUI();
int row;
int column;
     for (row = 0; row < (employeeNumber); row++) {    // verify proper output by ArrayCreate splitString
for (column = 0; column <= 2; column++) {
System.out.print(sortHelp[row][column]);
System.out.print(' ');
System.out.print(' ');
System.out.println();
1) It does not permit me to switch on a String. How do I solve that?
2)How would I throw an exception (IO) within actionperformed?
3)Generally, if cut it down to everything except the writing to a file part, the actionperformed script causes an error... why?
Thanks in advance.
And sorry for the relative lameness of my question...
---abe---

Answer 1

Thank you very much. That did solve almost all the problems that I had...
I just have one more problem.
First (here's the new code):
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
import java.util.StringTokenizer;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.event.*;
  public class Personnel implements ActionListener  {    
         JFrame GUIFrame;
          JLabel ID, Line, OKText,AnswerField;
           JTextField IDField, LineField;
           JButton OK;
           JPanel GUIPanel;
           int trialCounter=0;
     final static int employeeNumber = 7;
     final static int maxValue = ((employeeNumber*4)-1);
            public static String [][] sortHelp = new String [employeeNumber+1][3];   
     public Personnel() {
          GUIFrame = new JFrame("PersonnelSoft"); //create title header.
         GUIFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
         GUIFrame.setSize(new Dimension(100, 140));
         GUIPanel= new JPanel(new GridLayout(2, 2));
         addWidgets();
         GUIFrame.getRootPane().setDefaultButton(OK);
         GUIFrame.getContentPane().add(GUIPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
         GUIFrame.pack();
        GUIFrame.getContentPane().setVisible(true);
        GUIFrame.setVisible(true);
        private void addWidgets() {
              ID = new JLabel ("Please enter your employee Identification Number:", SwingConstants.LEFT);
              IDField = new JTextField ("ID", 5);
              Line = new JLabel ("Please enter the line of your payroll with which you have concerns:", SwingConstants.LEFT);
              LineField = new JTextField ("###", 2);
              OKText = new JLabel ("Click OK when you have verified the validity of your request", SwingConstants.LEFT);
              OK = new JButton ("OK");
              OK.setVerticalTextPosition(AbstractButton.CENTER);
              OK.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_I);
              AnswerField = new JLabel("The Result of your Querie will go here", SwingConstants.LEFT);
              GUIPanel.add(ID);
              GUIPanel.add(IDField);
              GUIPanel.add(Line);
              GUIPanel.add(LineField);
              GUIPanel.add(OKText);
              GUIPanel.add(OK);
              GUIPanel.add(AnswerField);
              OK.addActionListener(this);
              ID.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));
              OKText.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));
              Line.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));
        public static void ArrayCreate() throws IOException {   
          int counter = 2;      
          int empCounter = 1;      
          String save;
          FileInputStream inFile = new FileInputStream("C:\\Documents and Settings\\Abraham\\humanresource4\\src\\humanresource4\\HR.txt"); 
          BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inFile));
          String line;
                line = in.readLine();
                StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(line);
                save = st.nextToken();
                sortHelp[0][0] = save;
                sortHelp[0][2] = save;
                while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {
                save = st.nextToken();   
                sortHelp[0][1] = save;
                while (counter <= maxValue) {
                line = in.readLine();
                if (((counter - 1) % 4) == 0) {
                st = new StringTokenizer(line);
                sortHelp[empCounter][0] = st.nextToken();
                sortHelp[empCounter][2] = sortHelp[empCounter][0];
                while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {
                save = st.nextToken();   
                sortHelp[empCounter][1] = save;
                empCounter++;
                counter++;
             public static String[] joinString() {
                  String[] tempStorage = new String[employeeNumber+1];
                  int counter;
                  for (counter = 0; counter <= employeeNumber; counter++) {
                       tempStorage[counter] = (sortHelp[counter][1] + sortHelp[counter][0]);
                  return (tempStorage);
             public static String[] sortEm(String[] array, int len)
                 java.util.Arrays.sort(array);
                 return array;
             public static void splitString(String[] splitString){
                int counter;
                for (counter = 0; counter <= employeeNumber; counter++){
                     sortHelp[counter][0]=splitString[counter].substring( 5 );
                     sortHelp[counter][1]=splitString[counter].substring(0,5);
             void setLabel(String newText) {
                 AnswerField.setText(newText);
             void writetoHR(String local) throws IOException {
                  FileOutputStream outFile = new FileOutputStream ("C:\\Documents and Settings\\Abraham\\humanresource4\\src\\humanresource4\\HR2.txt");
                   BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(outFile));
                   out.write(local+"the preceding employee number is not in our database, but has submitted a request. Please sort out the issue");
                   System.exit(0);
             public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
                  boolean flag=false;
                  String local=IDField.getText();
                  local trim();
                  int i=0;
                  while((i<employeeNumber)&&(flag==false)){
                       if (sortHelp[1]==local) {
               flag=true;
          else {
     i++;
     trialCounter++;
     if (trialCounter>=3)
          try {
               writetoHR(local);
          } catch (IOException exception) {
setLabel("We are sorry. The program has encountered an unexpected error and must now close");
          } finally {
     if (flag==false)
          setLabel("Your ID number does not exist in our records. Verify your ID and try again.");
     else {
          final Map m = new HashMap();
          m.put("04","Your pay is calculated by multiplying your working hours by the amount per hour. If both of these fields are satisfactory to you, please contact humanresource.");
          m.put("03", "Hourly amount was calculated by the system, by dividing your yearly pay 26 and then 80.");
          m.put("07", "Overtime pay was calculated by multiplying regular hourly pay by 1.1");
          m.put("06", "The overtime hourly pay was multiplied by the amount of overtime hours.");
          m.put("10", "For holiday hours, your pay is increased by 25%.");
          m.put("09", "The holiday hourly pay was multiplied by your amount of holiday hours.");
          m.put("11", "Your total pay was calculated by adding all the separate types of payment to your name.");
          m.put("17", "Your net pay was found by subtracting the amount withheld from your account.");
          m.put("19", "Your sick hours remaining were taken from a pool of 96 hours.");
setLabel(m.get(LineField.getText()));
private static void CreateAndShowGUI() {
JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
Personnel GUI = new Personnel();
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
          String[] temporary = new String[employeeNumber];
          ArrayCreate();
temporary = joinString();
temporary = sortEm(temporary, employeeNumber);
splitString(temporary);
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
CreateAndShowGUI();
int row;
int column;
     for (row = 0; row < (employeeNumber); row++) {    // verify proper output by ArrayCreate splitString
for (column = 0; column <= 2; column++) {
System.out.print(sortHelp[row][column]);
System.out.print(' ');
System.out.print(' ');
System.out.println();
Now that code above produces two errors. First of all.
local trim();produces the error:
Syntax error, insert "AssignmentOperator ArrayInitializer" to complete ArrayInitializerAssignementSecondly, if I take that into comments, the line
setLabel(m.get(LineField.getText()));Produces the error:
The method setLabel(String) in the type Personnel is not applicable for the arguments (Object)If anybody could help me solve these, I would be sincerely thankfull.
Now, before anybody asks as to why I want to trim the String in the first place, it is due to the fact that I compare it to another String that is without whitespaces. Thus the field that DOES have whitespaces was preventing me from launching into the if loop:
if (sortHelp[1]==local) {
               flag=true;
(within actionperformed) Or at least that's my explanation as to why the loop never launched. If it is wrong, can somebody please explain?)
I apologize for the horrible indentation and lack of comments. This is an unfinished version.. I'll be adding the comments last (won't that be a joy), as well as looking for things to cut down on and make the program more efficient.
Anyways,
Thanks in Advance,
---abe---