Using toUpperCase variable in an If Statement

Question

Hi all,
I am monitoring a user's input in my command-line program, and by converting their input to upper case, I can easily check whether they've input the correct string. However when I use the String in an If statement, it doesn't like it. Here's the simple test code I've been using:     public static void main(String[] args) {     
BufferedReader keyboardInput = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));     
String priceOfPlayers = null;
try  {
     System.out.print("Price Of Players: ");
     priceOfPlayers = keyboardInput.readLine();
     priceOfPlayers = priceOfPlayers.toUpperCase();                         
     System.out.println(priceOfPlayers);          
     if (priceOfPlayers != "ORIGINAL PRICE" && priceOfPlayers != "CURRENT PRICE") {
          System.err.println("\nYou Have Entered An Invalid Option!\n");          
     } catch (Exception e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
          System.exit(1);
     }However if I type in say 'original price' or 'current price' or 'ORIGINAL PRICE', it still brings up the error message that I have written! I do not understand why it doesn't interpret the String value properly.
Any help explaining this would be superb!
thanks

Answer 1

Hi
String comparison should use the equals method instead of ==
if (!priceOfPlayers.equals("ORIGINAL PRICE") &&  !priceOfPlayers .equals("CURRENT RICE")) {
          System.err.println("\nYou Have Entered An Invalid Option!\n");          
     }