small looping problem(I think)

[tmoney7566]

I am trying to write an applet that receives 2 inputs from a user then opens a window and displays the 2 numbers that were input, along with a message of either "the numbers are equal", or "this number is the largest".

My problem--my program never returns "the numbers are equal". If I put in equal numbers like 76 and 76 it returns "76 is the largest number". Why?

here is my code

import java.awt.Graphics;//program uses class Graphics
import javax.swing.JApplet;//program uses class JApplet
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;//program uses class JOptionPane
import java.math.*;//program uses math.max

public class LargerApplet extends JApplet
{
	//variables to be used

	String firstNumber;
	String secondNumber;
	String result;

	private double answer;// finds max entered by user

		//initialize applet by obtaining values from user

		public void init()
		{

			double number1;//first number to  evaluate
			double number2;//second number to evaluate

			//obtain first number from user
			firstNumber = JOptionPane.showInputDialog( "Enter first floating-point value" );

			//obtain second number from user
			secondNumber = JOptionPane.showInputDialog( "Enter second floating-point value" );

			//convert numbers from type String to type double
			number1 = Double.parseDouble( firstNumber );
			number2 = Double.parseDouble( secondNumber );



			answer = Math.max( number1, number2);

		}//end method init

		//draw results in a rectangle on applet's background
		public void paint( Graphics g )
		{
			super.paint( g );//call superclass version of method paint

			//draw rectangle starting from (15, 10) that is 270
			//pixels wide and 20 pixels tall
			g.drawRect( 15, 10, 270, 50 );

			//draw results as a String at ( 25, 25 )
			g.drawString( "Your first number was--              " + firstNumber, 25,25 );
			g.drawString( "Your second number  was--      " + secondNumber ,25,35 );

			if ( firstNumber == secondNumber )
			{
				g.drawString ( "--Your numbers are equal--", 25,45 );

			}//end if


				else
				{

					g.drawString ( answer + "--Is the larger number--", 25, 55 );

				}//end else




		}//end method paint

	}//end class IsLargerApplet

[sillyboy]

firstNumber and secondNumber are Strings (I am pretty sure you know this). since they are strings, == will only evaluate true if they are the same object. you want to use .equals to compare Strings in the way you intend.

[tmoney7566]

That was it.
if (firstNumber.equals(secondNumber)) worked great. Thank you