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C#

James Hammond
James Hammond
1,297 Points
Posted by James Hammond
James Hammond
1,297 Points

Verifying user input to items in a list

I am working on my coffee shop console app for practice, and ran into a bit of a scenario.

My code asks the user if they want something on the Menu. It then prints the list out, and the user types in what they want. If they want another item it prompts the user, and then they put in whatever other item they want. The issue is, they can type Alphagetti (which is not on the list) and it will add it to the list.

How do I check the list to the user's answer and verify if what they typed in is an actual item on the menu?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,261 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,261 Points

A couple of ideas come to mind. One, you could provide a checklist of (only) available items and the user could make their selections by checking boxes instead of filling in text.

Another would be to loop through a list of the available item titles and compare the input to each item for a match. If none matched you could require the user to input again.

James Hammond
James Hammond
1,297 Points
James Hammond
James Hammond
1,297 Points

Great idea, i forgot to mention it was a console application , so I wonder if the second suggestion may be my best option :P