[JAVA] How can I make a function to count equal characters among two strings

[d0pe]

I need to create a function that returns a number with the amount of characters in common among one string and a vector of them.

public int sameChars (Vector<String> otherStrs){
        int result = 0;
        String original = "aab";
        for (int i=0; i< original.length(); i++) {
            char aux = original.charAt(i);
            String targetStr = otherStrs.get(i);
            for (int j=0; j< targetStr.length(); j++) {
                char targetAux = targetStr.charAt(j);
                if (aux.compareTo(targetAux) == 0) {
                    result++;
                }
            }
        }
        return result;
    }

3 problems in this initial stage:
- Getting error on compareTo, char cannot be dereferenced.
- I need to distinguish 'A' from 'a'. Equals doesnt do it.
- I need to account only for 1 of each character type. ("aab" compared to "ababababba" should only give a total count of 2.

Help is appreciatted to the newbie :)

[JamesCherrill]

1. char is a numeric type, not some kind of String, so you don't (can't) use .equals(). You can just compare them as numerics (char1 == char2).
2. Wrong. 'A' and 'a' are different chars and are not equal.
3. When you get a match break out of the appropriate loop(s).

[d0pe]

Just an update, the 1st problem was resolved by switching from char to Character.

And, the 2nd FOR statment has to be replaced with:

(int j=0; j< Math.min(original.length(), targetStr.length()); j++)

[d0pe]

public int sameChars (Vector<String> otherStrs){
        int result = 0;
        String original = "aab";
        for (int h= 0; h< otherStrs.size(); h++) {
            String targetStr = otherStrs.get(h);
            for (int i=0; i< original.length(); i++) {
                char aux = original.charAt(i);
                for (int j=0; j< Math.min(original.length(), targetStr.length()); j++) {
                    char targetAux = targetStr.charAt(j);
                    if (aux == targetAux) {
                        result++;
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return result;
    }

Kind of expensive with 3 for cycles but not a problem.

All is working but im getting multiple counts for same chars, breaking the cycle isn't enough.

I ran it with original string "aba" and the other string as "avr" and got 2 as the result. Any idea?