Method not recognizing PAREN when looping through character array
 

Can anyone take a look at the code below? I have this method that is
supposed to return a string with only the first character of a word
uppercase. This is working fine except for a string with parens in
it.

public class paren {

public static String s = "STRING THAT (HAS PARENS) INSIDE OF IT.";

public paren() {
System.out.println("Before UCW: " + s);
System.out.println(" After UCW: " + this.ucwords(s));
}

public String ucwords(String str) {
char[] broken = str.toLowerCase().toCharArray();
StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();

boolean doUpperCase = true;

for (int i = 0; i < broken.length; i++) {

if (doUpperCase) {
buf.append(String.valueOf(broken[i]).toUpperCase());
doUpperCase = false;
} else {

//if (broken[i] == '(') <-- this doesn't work
if (String.valueOf(broken[i]).equals("(")) // <--
doesn't work either
doUpperCase = true;
else if (broken[i] == ' ')
doUpperCase = true;
buf.append(broken[i]);
}
}

return buf.toString();
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
new paren();
}
}

Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong?

Cheers,
Curts

Re: Method not recognizing PAREN when looping through character array
 

Curts wrote:
>
> Can anyone take a look at the code below? I have this method that is
> supposed to return a string with only the first character of a word
> uppercase. This is working fine except for a string with parens in
> it.
>
> public class paren {
>
> public static String s = "STRING THAT (HAS PARENS) INSIDE OF IT.";
>
> public paren() {
> System.out.println("Before UCW: " + s);
> System.out.println(" After UCW: " + this.ucwords(s));
> }
>
> public String ucwords(String str) {
> char[] broken = str.toLowerCase().toCharArray();
> StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();
>
> boolean doUpperCase = true;
>
> for (int i = 0; i < broken.length; i++) {
>
> if (doUpperCase) {
> buf.append(String.valueOf(broken[i]).toUpperCase());
> doUpperCase = false;
> } else {
>
> //if (broken[i] == '(') <-- this doesn't work
> if (String.valueOf(broken[i]).equals("(")) // <--
> doesn't work either
> doUpperCase = true;
> else if (broken[i] == ' ')
> doUpperCase = true;
> buf.append(broken[i]);
> }
> }
>
> return buf.toString();
> }
>
> public static void main(String[] args) {
> new paren();
> }
> }
>
> Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong?

Sure, you shouldn't be checking the doUpperCase flag before you check for '(' or ' '.
The space before the left parenthesis in the text sets doUpperCase to true, so you do a
toUpperCase() on the parenthesis.

Your algorithm is not very general. Homework?

--
Lee Fesperman, FirstSQL, Inc. (http://www.firstsql.com)
================================================== ============
* The Ultimate DBMS is here!
* FirstSQL/J Object/Relational DBMS (http://www.firstsql.com)