Using scanner in a switch statement but my program only keeps printing the default

Question

I am a college freshman who's studying programming, so apparently, I'm new to this, but I'm already at the part of switch statements.

The goal of my program is to be like a dictionary. When user enters the term, the program should enter its meaning. But my program keeps printing the default. What do you think am I missing? Here's my code:

        Scanner scn = new Scanner(System.in);
            
        System.out.print("Enter the term:");
        String term = scn.nextLine();
            
        switch(term) {
            case "Programming":
                System.out.println("It is the process of creating a set of instructions to tell the computer how to do a task.");
            break;
            case "Java":
            System.out.println("A popular high-level and object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems in 1995 and now, owned by Oracle.");
            break;
            case "print":
                System.out.println("A method in Java that is used to display a text on the console.");
            break;
            case "scanner":
            System.out.println("It is used to get an input data from the user, and found in the java.util package.");
            break;
            case "packages":
                System.out.println("It organizes Java classes into namespaces, providing a unique namespace for each type it contains.");
            break;
            case "IDE":
                System.out.println("also known as Integrated Development Environment, a software app that enables us to write & debug programs more easily.");
            break;
            case "switch":
                System.out.println("Unlike conditionals, these statements only checks equality and only works strings, char, int and enums.");
            break;
            case "function":
                System.out.println("A block of organized, reusable code that is used to perform a single, related action.");
            break;
            case "Conditional Statements":
                System.out.println("It allows a program to take action based on the given condition.");
            break;
            case "IF-statements":
                System.out.println("It is one of the conditional statement that handles one conditional expression. It either does SOMETHING or NOTHING.");
            break;
            default: 
                System.out.println("Sorry, we don't have any information about that.");
                 }
                 
        scn.close();

Sorry, if it's a lengthy program, I want to make it ten items as possible. I also forgot to tell you that I tried once to remove the Scanner and only declare the variables, the program worked (just for you to know that my program also works and print strings).

Anyway, for those who will respond, thank you very much in advance!

It seems like this could be an issue of `case-sensitivity`. Show us your console. What are you entering and what is getting printed. — Nisanth Reddy, May 15 '21 at 07:53
Check Answer here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/338206/why-cant-i-use-switch-statement-on-a-string — Mani, May 15 '21 at 07:57
to avoid case-sensitivity issue, you can use `switch(term.toLowerCase())` and change case values to lowercase like `case "java"` instead of `case "Java"` — sanjeevRm, May 15 '21 at 08:00
@NisanthReddy I can give you the assurance that is not the case since I tried it many times and I also know the consequences of that. — PJ Villaflor, May 15 '21 at 08:17
@sanjeevRm sorry, it also prints the same message within my default... — PJ Villaflor, May 15 '21 at 08:19
incase there is space at the end of your input, you can trim that `term.trim()` — sanjeevRm, May 15 '21 at 09:45
This works fine for me, once I add a few braces at the end to close your program. — NomadMaker, May 15 '21 at 10:21
Also called "curly brackets". ("{}") You didn't close them all at the end of your code. — NomadMaker, May 16 '21 at 12:39
@sanjeevRm, this solved my problem, thank you very much, man — PJ Villaflor, May 16 '21 at 12:40
@NomadMaker sorry I didn't include that part but I'm sure I closed all the brackets. Anyways, problem solved already, thanks tho for also trying to help. Appreciated. — PJ Villaflor, May 16 '21 at 12:44
@Patrick Jimwell Villaflor , Glad! it helped, Please accept answer — sanjeevRm, May 16 '21 at 13:39

score 0 · Answer 1 · 2021-05-15T09:59:57.957

Posted is working correctly, at least for input Java see IDEone.
Most probably the input is not correct - switch needs exact same text: case is important, spaces are important, ...

Suggestion: include the input in the error message:

default: 
    System.out.println("Sorry, we don't have any information about '" 
                       + term + "'");

so the message can help user (and developer) see what went wrong (even/specially true in production code).

As commented, for this user case, it is better to ignore case like in:

switch (term.toLowerCase()) {
    case "programming":   \\ the labels must all be lowercase too
        ...
    case "java":
        ...

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 16 '21 at 13:38

0

Incase there is space at the end of your input, you can trim that term.trim()

answered May 16 '21 at 13:38

sanjeevRm

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Using scanner in a switch statement but my program only keeps printing the default

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