Thread: Intro to java assignment help

hey guys,

I'm new to java and was given this assignment in class:

Write an application that determines whether a phrase entered by the user is a
palindrome. A palindrome is a phrase that reads the same backward and forward
without regarding capitalization or punctuation. For example, “Dot saw I was Tod”,
“Was it a car or a cat I saw?”, and “Madam, I’m Adam” are palindromes. Save the file
as Palindrome.java.

so far I have this:

// Purpose:   determines whether a phrase is a palindrome
// Date:       9/19/2012
// Filename:   Palindrome.java
// Input:       a string from the user
// Output:     "It is a palindrome" or "It isn't a palindrome"
 
 
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Palindrome
{
 
public static void main(String[] args)
{
 
//get input
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in); 
System.out.println("Enter the word or prase: ");
String testWord = input.nextLine();
 
 
//create variables
//upperWord is used to convert the entire phrase to upper so as to ignore the capitalization
//reverseWord is the uppercase phrase in reverse
 
StringBuilder upperWord = new StringBuilder(testWord.toUpperCase() + 16);
StringBuilder reverseWord = new StringBuilder(upperWord.length() + 16);
 
 
//reverse the word
for(int x = 0; x != (testWord.length() - 1) ; ++x)
{
	reverseWord.setCharAt(x, testWord.charAt(testWord.length() - x - 1)); //ERROR HERE. 0 index is out of bounds.
}
 
//compares the two words
int counter = 0;
char isEqual = 'y';
while(counter != upperWord.length() || isEqual == 'y')
{
	if(upperWord.charAt(counter) != reverseWord.charAt(counter))
		isEqual = 'n';
}
 
//display output
if(isEqual == 'y')
	System.out.println(testWord + "is a palindrome!");
else
	System.out.println(testWord + "is not a palindrome.");
 
 
}
}

I've got a problem with my for loop, which I marked above. I feel like this is a simple fix but haven't been able to figure it out yet. Any help fixing this or making it more efficient would be much appreciated. thanks.