Can you figure this statement out?

Can someone helps me figure out a else statement for this program?

• String[]names={"John", "Mike", "Jeff", "Eric"} String str="Mike" for(int i=0; i<names.length; i++) { if(names[i].equals(str) System.out.println(str + "occured at " + i) (I tried to set a else statement in the case the name didn't belong to the array in which case a message of the sort of println("doesn't appear in the name list") would return, but Im havin an error message instead...

• Answer:

  First your code is incomplete so hard to say, are you getting the error just after you add your else? without else it runs properly? Second: you're not using ; at the end of your statements, but I guess it's just in your post and in the code you're doing it right? Third, my guess is you're trying to add the else after the loop which if that's the case of course you'll get error. You only can say it didn't appear in the list after you checked everything (after loop). Adding else right after if here would mean that it didn't appear at index i. If that's what you want to do, create a boolean variable before your loop and if the string appeard change it to true: boolean appeared = false; for(int i = 0; i < names.length; i++) { if(names[i].equals(str) { System.out.println(str + "occured at " + i); appeared = true; } } if(!appeared) System.out.println("doesn't appear in the name list");