Java string not showing when run

Question

I can't seem to figure out why the string college doesn't show when I run this. There are no errors when I compile it. What am I doing wrong? Everything else is working. It's probably an easy fix, but I'm new and just starting to learn Java.

import java.util.Scanner;
public class story_a_holloway{
public static void main(String[] args){
   String name;
   String city;
   int age;
   String college;
   String profession;
   String animal;
   String petname;

   Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);

   // Get name
   System.out.print("What is your name? ");
   name = keyboard.nextLine();

   // Get city
   System.out.print("What city do you live in? ");
   city = keyboard.nextLine();

   // Get age
   System.out.print("What is your age? ");
   age = keyboard.nextInt();

   // Get college
   System.out.print("What college do you attend? ");
   college = keyboard.nextLine();

   keyboard.nextLine();
   // Get profession
   System.out.print("What is your profession? ");
   profession = keyboard.nextLine();

   // Get animal
   System.out.print("What is your favorite animal? ");
   animal = keyboard.nextLine();

   // Get pet name
   System.out.print("What would you name your pet? ");
   petname = keyboard.nextLine();

   System.out.println("There once was a person named " + name + " who lived in " + city + ". At the age of " + age + ", " + name + " went to college at " + college + ". " + name + " graduated and went to work as a " + profession + ". Then " + name + " adopted a(n) " + animal + " named " + petname + ". They both lived happily ever after!");
}
}

Answer 1

Call keyboard.nextLine() after age = keyboard.nextInt();.

Currently int value is read as age and college = keyboard.nextLine(); reads the remainder of the line which container your int, which is empty. So the correct form should be:

// Get age
System.out.print("What is your age? ");
age = keyboard.nextInt();
keyboard.nextLine();

// Get college
System.out.print("What college do you attend? ");
college = keyboard.nextLine();

Other possible solution to avoid the extra call to nextLine() is reading the whole line as a String and then parsing that String to an integer, for example:

age = Integer.parseInt(keyboard.nextLine());

Answer 2

Put keyboard.nextLine() after this line:

int age=keyboard.nextInt();

This is a common problem that usually happens when you use nextLine() method after nextInt() method of Scanner class.

What actually happens is that when the user enters an integer at int age = keyboard.nextInt();, the scanner will take the digits only and leave the new-line character \n. So you need to do a trick by calling keyboard.nextLine(); just to discard that new-line character and then you can call String college = keyboard.nextLine(); without any problem.

this is taken from Reading Strings next() and nextLine() Java

Answer 3

The problem with your code is using nextLine() after nextInt() & you have an additional nextLine()

// Get age
System.out.print("What is your age? ");
age = keyboard.nextInt();

// Get college
System.out.print("What college do you attend? ");
college = keyboard.nextLine();

keyboard.nextLine(); --> this line
// Get profession
System.out.print("What is your profession? ");
profession = keyboard.nextLine();

What you should do is :

// Get age
System.out.print("What is your age? ");
age = keyboard.nextInt();
keyboard.nextLine(); -->add this line

// Get college
System.out.print("What college do you attend? ");
college = keyboard.nextLine();

// keyboard.nextLine(); --> remove this line
// Get profession
System.out.print("What is your profession? ");
profession = keyboard.nextLine();

A better way of doing it would be : (read about Integer.pasrseInt(String))

// Get age
System.out.print("What is your age? ");
age = Integer.parseInt(keyboard.nextLine());

Answer 4

    import java.util.Scanner;
    public class story_a_holloway{
    public static void main(String[] args){
        String name;
        String city;
        int age;
        String profession;
        String animal;
        String petname;
        String college;
        Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in);

        // Get name
        System.out.print("What is your name? ");
        name = keyboard.nextLine();

        // Get city
        System.out.print("What city do you live in? ");
        city = keyboard.nextLine();

        // Get age
        System.out.print("What is your age? ");
        age = Integer.parseInt(keyboard.nextLine());

        // Get college
        System.out.print("What college do you attend? ");
        college = keyboard.nextLine();

        // Get profession
        System.out.print("What is your profession? ");
        profession = keyboard.nextLine();

        // Get animal
        System.out.print("What is your favorite animal? ");
        animal = keyboard.nextLine();

        // Get pet name
        System.out.print("What would you name your pet? ");
        petname = keyboard.nextLine();
        System.out.println(college);
        System.out.println("There once was a person named " + name + " who lived in " + city + ".    At the age of " + age + ", " + name + " went to college at " + college + ". " + name + " graduated and went to work as a " + profession + ". Then " + name + " adopted a(n) " + animal + " named " + petname + ". They both lived happily ever after!");
    }
}