URGENT!.....accepting user input and string conversion

Question

I have a problem with a text-based menu I am trying to create for a Shape class with rectangle, circle, etc... subclasses below it...here is a code clip
//The menu choices given to the user.
          System.out.println("Please select which shape you would like to create:\n");
          System.out.println("(1)Rectangle");
          System.out.println("(2)Square");
          System.out.println("(3)Circle");
          System.out.println("(4)Ellipse");
          System.out.println("(5)Exit the program\n");
          System.out.print("Enter your choice (1,2,3,4 or 5): ");
     menuChoice=(char)System.in.read();
switch(menuChoice) {
case '1':                              
System.out.println("\nTo create a rectangle, please enter the following dimensions below (integers only)...\n");                    
     System.out.print("Center X co-ordinate = ");
          while((x=(char)System.in.read()) !='\n')
          CentXBuf.append(x);     
     System.out.print("Center Y co-ordinate = ");
          while((y=(char)System.in.read()) !='\n')
          CentYBuf.append(y);
The above works fine, however, when the the user inputs the menu choice, it does not let me input the center x co-ordinate and goes on to the second input of the center y co-ordinate then the program crashes with a NumberFormatException
I tried to replace
     menuChoice=(char)System.in.read();
with
     while((z=(char)System.in.read()) !='\n'){
          zBuff.append(z);
     String v = new String(zBuff);
     int menuChoice = Integer.valueOf(v).intValue();
but the above itself gives me a NumberFormatException also!
What do I do?!?!

Answer 1

Try this:
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(System.in)
String input = reader.readLine();