[Phobos0001]

ok, ive been playing around with the code ive been given (cheers for that by the way) and ive come up with a very simple test and got it working, and its exactly what i wanted, and here it is, incase anyone is interested

Code:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.text.*;
import java.io.*;	

public class phrase
{
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
  	String agebox, namebox;
  	DecimalFormat num = new DecimalFormat(",##.00");
  	namebox =JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Enter Member's Name, leave blank to exit member entry ");	// user input for name
   	agebox =JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Enter Member's Age: ");
   	int len=namebox.length();
   			if (len != 0 )
  	  	  	{JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"len != 0",
  			"WARNING!",
  			JOptionPane.WARNING_MESSAGE);}
  			else
  	{JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"else len == 0",
  			"WARNING!",
  			JOptionPane.WARNING_MESSAGE);}   	
     System.exit(0);  
  }
}

so now all i need to do is intergrate that into the membership program i am writing in my 2nd post, i think it might have to be a do-while loop? it has to be an infinate loop untill the "len == 0"

or would i just do an if-else to do this?
such as this bit os pesudo-code i threw together?
--------------------
if len == 0 then display totals
else show age dialog box
----------------

or something more like this...
-------
do age dialog box
while len !0 0
--------

im a bit at a loss but i'll get it eventualy, thankyou so much for the help so far everyone