Checking if String is added when integer required

[wfsteadman]

Greetings all,
I have a while loop which presents me with a menu. The options the user can select are 1-6.
I have it setup and if someone puts 10, the default switch catches it and says invalid input and the user is presented with the menu again. What I am trying to do is add something so that if they put in a String instead of an integer, that it will tell them they made an invalid entry and return them to the menu. Below is the code I have so far. What happens is they are presented with the menu and say for example if they enter "bob", then they get a message that says invalid input but the menu just keeps going in an infinite loop. This code has a try catch statement thinking that might help but I still get an infinite loop. I am just try to catch if the user does not put an integer.
Any assistance would be appreciated. This is my first time creating a console menu.

Wally

Scanner myScanner = new Scanner(System.in);

while (true)
    {
      System.out.println("Enter the number from the selection below:\n"
              + "1. Add new value to Array\n"
              + "2. Find first instance of a number\n"
              + "3. Find all instances of a number\n"
              + "4. Delete a number\n"
              + "5. Sort Array\n"
              + "6. Quit");
      try{
      errorCheck = myScanner.nextInt();
      selection = errorCheck;
      }catch(Exception e)
      {
      System.out.print("Enter and integer\n");
      }
      
      switch (selection)
      {
        case 1:
          System.out.print("Case 1\n");
          break;
        case 2:
          System.out.print("Case 2\n");
          break;
        case 3:
          System.out.print("Case 3\n");
          break;
        case 4:
          System.out.print("Case 4\n");
          break;
        case 5:
          System.out.print("Case 5\n");
          break;
        case 6:
          System.out.print("Exiting Program");
          System.exit(0);
          break;
        default:
          System.out.print("Invalid Selection try again\n");
          break;
      }
    }

[wfsteadman]

I had to add a myScanner.nextLine(); in the catch as well as changing selection to an invalid number and now it works without looping.

[pbrockway2]

This code has a try catch statement thinking that might help but I still get an infinite loop.

The scanner will throw an exception if it can't interpret "bob" as an integer, but it will leave "bob" in the input stream. (Details in the API docs.) Hence the infinite loop as the scanner repeatedly reads "bob" and repeatedly throws the exception.

The solution is to read the user's input as a string (there's a scanner method for that). Then parse it yourself using Integer.parseInt(), this will also throw an exception which you can catch and respond to but at least the offending input has been read and won't be read again.

[pbrockway2]

I was too slow :(

Yes, nextLine() will remove the offending input. Fwiw here's what I was talking about (untested) which allows for messages specific to the type of error (and also setting the input to something invalid which is maybe a little inelegant)

Scanner myScanner = new Scanner(System.in);
 
while (true)
    {
      System.out.println("Enter the number from the selection below:\n"
              + "1. Add new value to Array\n"
              + "2. Find first instance of a number\n"
              + "3. Find all instances of a number\n"
              + "4. Delete a number\n"
              + "5. Sort Array\n"
              + "6. Quit");
      try{
          selection = Integer.parseInt(myScanner.nextLine());
      }catch(NumberFormatException nfe)
      {
          System.out.print("Your input must be an integer!  Try again...\n");
          continue;
      }
       
      switch (selection)
      {
        case 1:
          System.out.print("Case 1\n");
          break;
        case 2:
          System.out.print("Case 2\n");
          break;
        case 3:
          System.out.print("Case 3\n");
          break;
        case 4:
          System.out.print("Case 4\n");
          break;
        case 5:
          System.out.print("Case 5\n");
          break;
        case 6:
          System.out.print("Exiting Program");
          System.exit(0);
          break;
        default:
          System.out.print("Invalid Selection try again\n");
          break;
      }
    }

[wsaryada]

I think it is better to use the validation methods that already provided by the scanner class such as the hhasNextInt(). For example using the snippet below:

        int number;
        do {
            System.out.println("Please enter a positive number: ");
            while (!scanner.hasNextInt()) {
                String input = scanner.next();
                System.out.printf("\"%s\" is not a valid number.\n", input);
            }
            number = scanner.nextInt();
        } while (number < 0);