Thread: height code not working

I am just starting out in Java, I have lots to learn. I get the following error code.
error:incompatible types
gender=keyboard.next();
required: char
found: String
Does this mean that I should have gender as a String?

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Height
{
public static void main (String[] args)
{
int inches, feet,mFeet, mInches, fFeet, fInches, cFeet, cInches;
int mHeight, fHeight, cHeight;
char gender;

Scanner keyboard=new Scanner (System.in);

System.out.println("Enter the child's gender (M or F):");
gender=keyboard.next();

if ((gender=="M")||(gender=="F"));
System.out.println("Error - Invalid gender");

System.out.println("Enter mothers height (feet):");
mFeet=keyboard.nextInt();

System.out.println("Enter the mothers height (inches):");
mInches=keyboard.nextInt();

System.out.println("Enter fathers height (feet):");
fFeet=keyboard.nextInt();

System.out.println("Enter the fathers height (inches):");
fInches=keyboard.nextInt();
//convert input form mother and father to inches and estimate the adult height of the child//
mHeight=(mFeet*12)+mInches;
fHeight=(fFeet*12)+fInches;

if (gender=M)
//male child formula//
cHeightmHeight*13/12)+fHeight)/2;
else
// female child formula//
cHeightfHeight*12/13)+mHeight)/2;
//turn child height into feet and inches//


System.out.println("The estimated adult height of this child is "
+ cHeight/12+" feet "
+cHeight%12+" inches.");
}
}

Welcome ZorraBella,

Originally Posted by ZorraBella

Does this mean that I should have gender as a String?

Not really. It means that you have it as a string. But the program expects a char. It makes sense to store it as a char, so work on making String an 'actual' char value.

You will find what you need here: Java String API #Methods

Also please read this Welcome! If it's your first time here, please read this. and post your code in the correct tags to format it.

use Char (Variable) = gender.charAt(0) TO convert string to char. I hope the mod doesn't percieve this as spoonfeeding.

There are a few errors in your code you will run into from what I can see. Make sure to learn the difference between (==, = and .equals()) Two of them are used to compare values while one is used to assign. Be sure to know when to use which of the them. Another thing you will want to learn is when to use " or ' for what data types and such. One more interesting bug you will experience at one point will be when using the Scanner object when it happens you will baffled and understand why it is interesting.

Quick thing to note when if statements if you decide to exclude the { } only the code in the next line will be run so be careful when you exclude them.

Originally Posted by Kewish

Welcome ZorraBella,



Not really. It means that you have it as a string. But the program expects a char. It makes sense to store it as a char, so work on making String an 'actual' char value.

You will find what you need here: Java String API #Methods

Also please read this Welcome! If it's your first time here, please read this. and post your code in the correct tags to format it.

Thank you for your help. I got my code to compile, but I have still working on getting it to exit if the put in the wrong answer to the first question. Instead my if statement lets the code run all the way through.

System.out.println("Enter the child's gender (M or F):");
       gender=keyboard.next().charAt(0);
 
 
      if ((gender!='M')||(gender!='F'));
           System.out.println("Error - Invalid gender");

Do you want it to exit or ask the user to try again?

You may want to post the revised version of your code. By the way you may want to check your if statement for gender.

if ((gender!='M')||(gender!='F'));
   System.out.println("Error - Invalid gender");

As it is now it checks if gender does not equal 'M' OR if gender does not equal 'F' then print out invalid gender. A char cannot be two chars at the same time so it will always display the error message. It is a simple fix just giving you a heads up. So what is it you are trying to accomplish now?