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Java Java Basics Perfecting the Prototype String Equality

Lyndsi Barfield
Lyndsi Barfield
633 Points
Posted by Lyndsi Barfield
Lyndsi Barfield
633 Points

I am stuck on this question about equalsIgnoreCase. I'm not sure what to do differently to get it right.

its the second if statement that I have wrong.

Equality.java 
// I have imported a java.io.Console for you, it is named console. 
String firstExample = "hello";
String secondExample = "hello";
String thirdExample = "HELLO";

if (firstExample == secondExample) {
  console.printf("first is equal to second");
}

if (firstExample.equalsIgnoreCase == thirdExample.equalsIgnoreCase) {
  console.printf("first and third are the same ignoring case");
}

2 Answers

Rumyana Dimitrieva
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Rumyana Dimitrieva
Java Web Development Techdegree Graduate 18,632 Points

The line 

          if (firstExample.equalsIgnoreCase == thirdExample.equalsIgnoreCase) {
  console.printf("first and third are the same ignoring case");
}
}

should look like this :

 if (firstExample.equalsIgnoreCase(thirdExample) {
  console.printf("first and third are the same ignoring case");
}
Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,860 Points
Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,860 Points

Hi Rumyana Dimitrieva

First, it's proper practice in the Community to provide a "Why" when giving answers to questions here. We appreciate your participation in the Community, but please, in the future, provide an explanation as to why the code is incorrect and/or why your provided code is correct.

Second, you above code has a syntax error. You are missing the closing parenthesis for the if statement

Thank you. :dizzy:

Jason Anders
MOD
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,860 Points
Jason Anders
Jason Anders
Treehouse Moderator 145,860 Points

Hi Lyndsi,

There are actually a couple things going on here. The first one is correct, as you are directly comparing them to each other using the comparison operator (==).

But, for the second task, you need to use an instance method equalsIgnoreCase() which needs parentheses and takes an argument. Here, you can't use the comparison operator, because you are using a method that does that for you behind the scenes.

You are correct, in that you access the method using dot notation, but instead of == you pass what you want to compare as an argument inside the parentheses like so:

if (firstExample.equalsIgnoreCase(thirdExample)) {
  console.printf("first and third are the same ignoring case");
}

If you still uncertain about the 'why' with this syntax, just take a quick review of the video before moving on.

Keep Coding! :) :dizzy: