How to make sure a user is entering a specific string?

Question

I'm trying to ask a user whether they want to encrypt or decrypt a message, and I know that I need to use userInput.equals("encrypt"), but i want to use a while loop with !=.

    while(userInput.!equals("encrypt") || userInput.!equals("decrypt")){
        System.out.println("Please try again. Check spelling, and that you typed either 'encrypt' or 'decrypt'.);
        userInput = scan.nextLine().toLowerCase();
    }

and I dont know the syntax for the userInput.!equal("x"). (Obviously, what I put is not right).

put the exclamation mark in front of the method call `while(!userInput.equal("encrypt") || !userInput.equal("decrypt"))`, so the output gets inverted — Japu_D_Cret, Mar 25 '17 at 17:31
Yeah, thanks. It works. I can't accept an answer for another couple minutes tho — , Mar 25 '17 at 17:39
Wait. It will ALWAYS either not equal "encrypt" or not equal "decrypt". Shouldn't that be a `&&`? — D M, Mar 25 '17 at 17:42

Ousmane D. · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-25T17:45:57.023

1

Simply change the while loop condition to this:

while(!userInput.equals("encrypt") && !userInput.equals("decrypt"))

also, if you want to ignore case:

while(!userInput.equalsIgnoreCase("encrypt") && !userInput.equalsIgnoreCase("decrypt"))

edited Mar 25 '17 at 17:45

answered Mar 25 '17 at 17:33

Ousmane D.

54,915
8
91
126

But it needs to be `&&` instead of `||`. – D M Mar 25 '17 at 17:44

How to make sure a user is entering a specific string?

1 Answers1