Why equals() in if condition let everything in?

Question

My task is to create function which returns true if string parameter contains 1,2 or 3 "e" characters, for loop is needed. It looks like equals() method passes everything in and increases counter whenever sLetter = "e" or not. Or maybe problem is somewhere else?

static boolean checkLetter (String paramOne){
    int count = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i <= paramOne.length() - 1; i++) {
        char letter = paramOne.charAt(i);
        String sLetter = Character.toString(letter);

        if (sLetter.equals("e"));
        {
            count++;
        }
    }

    System.out.print((count >= 1) && (count <= 3));
    return (count >= 1) && (count <= 3);
}

This article can help you: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/767372/string-equals-versus — mad4n7, Sep 26 '18 at 20:41
What problem? Also `letter == 'e'` and `if (sLetter.equals("e"));` has a really bad typo. Remove the semicolon. — Elliott Frisch, Sep 26 '18 at 20:41
Code looks correct, but you could just check to see if letter == 'e' instead of converting to a string. — JustinKSU, Sep 26 '18 at 20:42
Typo - you've got a semi-colon at the end of your `if` statement. — Makoto, Sep 26 '18 at 20:42
And where are some crucial informations like eg INPUT and actual OUTPUT ?? — Antoniossss, Sep 26 '18 at 20:44
If you use a good IDE (e.g. Eclipse), it would give you this warning at the end of the `if` statement: **Empty control-flow statement** — Andreas, Sep 26 '18 at 20:44
More precisely, your if statement is followed by **an empty statement** (a single semicolon). Everything within the curly brackets are just part of a normal **code block**. — MC Emperor, Sep 26 '18 at 20:47

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 26 '18 at 20:44

-1

Remove the semicolon from the end of the if statement.

static boolean checkLetter (String paramOne){
    int count = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i <= paramOne.length() - 1; i++) {
        char letter = paramOne.charAt(i);
        String sLetter = Character.toString(letter);

        if (sLetter.equals("e"))
        {
            count++;
        }
    }

    System.out.print((count >= 1) && (count <= 3));
    return (count >= 1) && (count <= 3);
}

answered Sep 26 '18 at 20:44

Unmitigated

76,500
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Its typo issue.. – Antoniossss Sep 26 '18 at 20:45
3

Vote to close. Don't answer questions this simple. – Makoto Sep 26 '18 at 20:45

score -1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 26 '18 at 20:44

-1

You have an extra semicolon ";" on the if statement, so nothing happens if it's true and the count always goes up

change

 if (sLetter.equals("e"));
 {
   count++;
 }

to

 if (sLetter.equals("e")) {
   count++;
 }

Also you can simplify the logic by doing

if (letter == 'e') {
   count++;
}

answered Sep 26 '18 at 20:44

JustinKSU

4,875
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3

Vote to close. Don't answer questions this simple. – Makoto Sep 26 '18 at 20:45
its in the comments already and for closing. – Antoniossss Sep 26 '18 at 20:45
@Makoto Why? This is not obvious to a new developer. Shouldn't we be helping folks like this instead of ignoring new users? – JustinKSU Sep 26 '18 at 20:48
1

It's a typo which won't be of any value to anyone else in any meaningful way considering how much Google-able material already exists on it. – Makoto Sep 26 '18 at 20:49
Maybe it should be closed as duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14112515/semicolon-at-end-of-if-statement instead of saying it's off topic – JustinKSU Sep 26 '18 at 20:51

Why equals() in if condition let everything in?

2 Answers2