[shanePreater]

Step 1 is quite straight forward. You can use the parseInt function on the Integer class:

Code:

int number = Integer.parseInt(someString);

Remember to check for NumberFormatExceptions if the user types in rubbish.
The next bit of making the 1 mean small can be as simple as defining a constant in your class but you may want to investigate using an enum instead.

Hope this helps.