Won't evaluate my if statement as true even though it is?

Question

import java.io.*;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Main {
    private static final String DATAFILE = "Ass3.dat";
    private static final String INDEXFILE = "Ass3.idx";
    private static final int NAMELENGTH = 20;
    private static final int ADDRESSLENGTH = 100;
    private static final int PHONELENGTH = 15;
    private static final int RECORDLENGTH = NAMELENGTH + ADDRESSLENGTH + PHONELENGTH;
    public static void main (String[] args) {
        Table table = new HashTable();
        Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
        byte buffer[] = new byte[RECORDLENGTH];
        String selection = "-1";
        String name = null;
        String address = null;
        String phNumber = null;
        try {
            RandomAccessFile dataFile = new RandomAccessFile(DATAFILE, "rw");
            File indexFile = new File(INDEXFILE);
            long nextRecord = dataFile.length();
            long recordNumber = nextRecord/RECORDLENGTH;
            if (indexFile.createNewFile()) {
                //if no index file exists
                System.out.println("There is no existing file. A file has been created.");
                do {
                    System.out.println("");
                    System.out.println("Please select from the following options and input a number for your selection:");
                    System.out.println("[1] Create a new address book by loading a text file");
                    System.out.println("[2] Create a new address book by inputing records manually");
                    System.out.println("");
                    System.out.print("What is your selection? ");
                    selection = scan.next();
                    if ((!selection.equals("1")) && (!selection.equals("2"))) {
                        System.out.println("This is not a valid selection. Please try again.");
                } while ((!selection.equals("1")) && (!selection.equals("2")));
            else { //the index file was found
                ObjectInputStream is = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream(indexFile));
                table = (Table) is.readObject();
                is.close();
                System.out.println("An existing file has been found and loaded.");
            do {
                if (selection == "1") {
                    System.out.println("This option is not yet available.");
                    selection = "$";
                else if (selection == "2") {
                    while (selection != "$") {
                ..etc I didn't post the whole thing because it's huge. I'm using bluej and i put a breakpoint in, when it gets to the if (selection == "1") satement, the debugger tells me it's got the value "1" but it skipps over the if statement that should be true :S
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

G.W. wrote:
Just a small tip:
it's always safe to do this:
"1".equals(variable);and it's not always safe to do this:
variable.equals("1");where of course variable was previously declared as String. First comparison will never throw an exception second one may cause NullPointerException when variable == null. So in order to avoid checking wheather or not you can actually invoke equals() on a variable it's beter to invoke equals on literal.
Regards,Although having said that, it's not automatically a good idea to avoid NPEs. If the value should never be null, you have a bug, and you're as well to find it there, rather than somewhere further down the line