stumped on do while loops

[txthrizzle]

Having a little trouble creating a program.. Well to start I need to create a program that will list all of the numbers between two input values, in either ascending or descending order. The user will enter a lower bound and upper bound number through a scanner object, and enter whether they want Ascending or Descending via A/a or D/d. if the user enters an incorrect A/a or D/d the user will be stated error or what not.. but here is my code.. any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you.

import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class assign4
{
 
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		int low, up;
		Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
		String A, a, D, d, check;
 
	do
	{
		System.out.print("Enter lower bound integer: ");
		low = input.nextInt();
		System.out.print("Enter upper bound integer: ");
		up = input.nextInt();
		System.out.println("Lower bound: " + low);
		System.out.println("Upper bound: " + up);
	}
	while (low <= up);
	{	
		
			
		System.out.println("Error!! lower bound must be smaller.");
	}
	
	
		System.out.print("Would you like Ascending or Descending order? [A/a or D/d]: ");
 
		A = input.check;
		a = input.check;
		D = input.check;
		d = input.check;
		
	while (check.equals("A,a"));
	{
		System.out.println(low + 1);
 
	}	
	while (check.equals("D,d"));
	{
	System.out.println(top - 1);
	}
 
}
}

[ajhampson]

Ok, your first loop is a do - while. That means the code between the do and the while will be executed while the condition is true. See the Java Tutorial for details.

The code in brackets following your loop

	{	
		System.out.println("Error!! lower bound must be smaller.");
	}

is not part of the loop and will be executed once each time the program is run. If you want it printed as an error message, placing it in an if statement inside the loop would be more appropriate.

In this segment

		System.out.print("Would you like Ascending or Descending order? [A/a or D/d]: ");
 
		A = input.check;
		a = input.check;
		D = input.check;
		d = input.check;

I'm not sure what you're doing. The input object is of class Scanner, which doesn't have a check method (scanner JavaDoc). Also, you don't really need to have a separate String object for each of the user choices; one object named "choice" or something similar would probably be good. Once you have the user input in choice (perhaps via input.nextLine()), you'd want to decide whether to do ascending or descending (if statement again?) based on that value. You can use toLower() to make your comparisons seem case insensitive.

Your last two loops, should loop based on whether the two input numbers are equal. Make sure you actually increment or decrement the values as top - 1 and low + 1 only create a modified value, it is not assigned anywhere. The increment (++) and decrement (--) operators can help you here.

If you don't really increment and decrement the values, your while loop will be endless and your program will never exit.

Keep trying and post your questions here.

Hope this helps,
alan