How do I compare user string input to the string in an entire array?

Question

In my program I have an array with team names and what I want to do is collect user input that checks if the input matches any of the team names in the array. I can only get it to check one string in the array at a time if i put in the arguement of the if statement:

if(teamName.equals(teams[0])

. But I want to check all the strings in the array rather than one at a time

    Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);

    String[] teams = new String [20];
    teams[0] = "Arsenal";
    teams[1] = "Aston Villa";
    teams[2] = "Burnley";
    teams[3] = "Chelsea";
    teams[4] = "Crystal Palace";
    teams[5] = "Everton";
    teams[6] = "Hull City";
    teams[7] = "Leicester City";
    teams[8] = "Liverpool";
    teams[9] = "Manchester City";
    teams[10] = "Manchester United";
    teams[11] = "Newcastle United";
    teams[12] = "QPR";
    teams[13] = "Southampton";
    teams[14] = "Sunderland";
    teams[15] = "Spurs";
    teams[16] = "Stoke";
    teams[17] = "Swansea";
    teams[18] = "West Ham";
    teams[19] = "West Brom";

System.out.println("Please enter a team: ");
    String teamName = input.nextLine();

    if(teamName.equals(teams)) {
            System.out.println("You like: " + teamName);
    }
    else {
        System.out.println("Who?");
    }
}

Try taking a look at this link.

user2258651
– user2258651

2015-03-23 01:38:25 +00:00
Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 1:38 — user2258651
– user2258651, Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 1:38

fabian · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-23 00:45:10Z

2

Using java8, this would be a possible solution:

 if(Arrays.stream(teams).anyMatch(t -> t.equals(teamName))) {
     System.out.println("You like: " + teamName);
 } else {
     System.out.println("Who?");
 }

edited Mar 23, 2015 at 0:45

fabian

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answered Mar 23, 2015 at 0:43

user4668606

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Comments

Maarten Bodewes · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-23 00:40:30Z

0

Just put them in a Set and use the contains method.

So make the following changes:

Set<String> teamSet = new TreeSet<>();
Collections.addAll(teamSet, teams);

System.out.println("Please enter a team: ");
String teamName = input.nextLine();

if (teamSet.contains(teamName)) {
    System.out.println("You like: " + teamName);
} else {
    System.out.println("Who?");
}

answered Mar 23, 2015 at 0:40

Maarten Bodewes

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3 Comments

Maarten Bodewes Over a year ago

You could of course also put the teams individually in the Set but that would be tedious :)

Andrew Quinonez Over a year ago

Thanks for the help! I was also wondering if you knew a way to check input of team names without the first letter having to capitalized for it to be accepted in the "if"?

Maarten Bodewes Over a year ago

The easiest method of doing this is to use e.g. lowercase for everything. The advantage of Paul's asnwer is that you could use equalsIgnoreCase which is not (directly) possible for the Set approach. You could think of anyMatch as a loop though, I don't assume it uses hashCode internally.

Henry H · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-23 00:51:32Z

0

add this method to your code

public boolean arrayContainsTeam(String team)
{
    boolean hasTeam = false;
    for(String aTeam:teams) {
         if(aTeam.equals(team)) {
              return(true);
         }
    }
    return(false);
}

and then replace

if(teamName.equals(teams)) {
        System.out.println("You like: " + teamName);
}
else {
    System.out.println("Who?");
}

with

if(arrayContainsTeam(teamName)) {
        System.out.println("You like: " + teamName);
}
else {
    System.out.println("Who?");
}

answered Mar 23, 2015 at 0:51

Henry H

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