Reading in a text file and comparing text - Java

In my program I am reading in and parsing a file for resources.

I extract a string which represents the resource type, do a simple if then else statement to check if it matches any known types and throw an error if it doesn't:

if(type.toLowerCase() == "spritesheet") {
    _type = ResourceType.Spritesheet;
} else if(type.toLowerCase() == "string") {
    _type = ResourceType.String;
} else if(type.toLowerCase() == "texture") {
    _type = ResourceType.Texture;
} else if(type.toLowerCase() == "num") {
    _type = ResourceType.Number;
} else {
    throw new Exception("Invalid Resource File - Invalid type: |" + type.toLowerCase() + "|");
}

Ignoring my bad naming and non descript exception, this statement is always going to the final else, even if type IS "spritesheet" as read in from the file, etc.

java.lang.Exception: Invalid Resource File - Invalid type: |spritesheet|
at Resource.Load(Resource.java:55) //Final else.

If I set type to "spritesheet" before this call, it works, so I'm wondering if it's some kind of encoding error or something?

I haven't done much work in java so I might be missing something simple :)

Assuming type is a String, you want to use String.equals() to test for equality. Using the == operator tests to see if the variables are references to the same object.

Also, to make your life easier, I would suggest using String.equalsIgnoreCase() as this will save you from calling toLowerCase().

Starting from Java 7 you can use Strings in switch statements! :)

The following should work:

switch (type.toLowerCase()) {
    case "spritesheet":  _type = ResourceType.Spritesheet; break;
    case "string":       _type = ResourceType.String;      break;
    case "texture":      _type = ResourceType.Texture;     break;
    case "num":          _type = ResourceType.Number;      break;

    default:             throw new Exception("Invalid Resource File " + 
                         "- Invalid type: |" + type.toLowerCase() + "|");
}

I haven't tried it yet, let me know how it goes!