java: 'string index out of range: -1' exception using indexOf()

Question

Weird problem. I run this (very elementary) procedure to find a username and password in a file, and the program should compare the password entered to the password saved. Every time, however, i get a strange String index out of range: -1 exception. I've suffered a similar problem before, however this time the indexOf('.') call is returning -1; which it doesn't like. Why is indexOf() returning -1 if it causes an error? Here's the source:

public String loginToClient() throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
        //decryptUsers();
        int tries;
        tries = 5;
        while (tries > 0) {
            System.out.println("LOGIN");
            String usnm = c.readLine("Username: ");
            char [] passwd = c.readPassword("Password: ");
            users = new FileInputStream("users.fra");
            DataInputStream dis = new DataInputStream(users);
            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(dis));
            String logindat = br.readLine();
            System.out.println(logindat);
            if (logindat.contains(usnm) == null) {
                System.err.println("Username not recognised, please try another or create user.");
                usnm = "INV";
                return usnm;
            }
            else {
                int startUsnm = logindat.indexOf(usnm);
                System.out.println("startUsnm: " + startUsnm);
                String logdat = logindat.substring(startUsnm, logindat.indexOf("."));
                System.out.println("logdat: " + logdat);
                int endUsnm = logdat.indexOf(':'); 
                System.out.println("endUsnm: " + endUsnm);
                int usnmend = endUsnm - 1;
                System.out.println("usnmend: " + usnmend);
                int startPass = endUsnm + 1;
                System.out.println("startPass: " + startPass);
                int endPass = logdat.indexOf('.');
                System.out.println("endPass: " + endPass);
                String Usnm = logdat.substring(0, usnmend);
                System.out.println("Usnm: " + Usnm);
                int passend = endPass - 1;
                System.out.println("passend: " + passend);
                String Pass = logdat.substring(startPass, passend);
                System.out.println("Pass: " + Pass);
                char [] Passwd = Pass.toCharArray();
                if (usnm.equals(Usnm)) {
                    if (Arrays.equals(passwd,Passwd)) {
                        System.out.println ("Logged in. Welcome, " + usnm + ".");
                        String data = "LOGIN: " + usnm;
                        printLog(data);
                        //encryptUsers();
                        return usnm;
                    }
                    else {
                        System.out.println ("Incorrect password, please try again.");
                        String data = "PASWFAIL: " + usnm;
                        printLog(data);
                        tries -= 1;
                    }
                }
                else {
                    System.out.println ("Username not recognised.");
                    printLog("USNAMFAIL");
                    usnm = "INV";
                    return usnm;
                    //encrytUsers();
                }
            }
        }
        //encryptUsers();
        System.exit(2);
        return usnm;
    }

And here's some input/output:

Startup initiated.
Logfile exists.
Users file exists.
New user? n
ELSE
LOGIN
Username: rik
Password: 
rik:55.
startUsnm: 0
endUsnm: 3
startPass: 4
endPass: -1
Usnm: rik
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -5
    at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1949)
    at client0_0_2.loginToClient(client0_0_2.java:103)
    at client0_0_2.general(client0_0_2.java:209)
    at client0_0_2.<init>(client0_0_2.java:221)
    at client0_0_2.main(client0_0_2.java:228)

EDIT : SOLUTION FOUND!

For some reason, indexOf() does not want to find a '.'- when replaced with a hyphen('-'), however, it runs perfectly, seemingly!

Answer 1

I think the error is in this line:

String Pass = logdat.substring(startPass, passend);

For some reason (you'll have to determine why), you compute passend by searching for . in the string. If . isn't present, indexOf returns -1 as a sentinel. This isn't the line that causes the exception, though. I think it's the above line, since if you try to compute a substring ending at passend when passend is -1, you would get the above error.

Try determining why your string doesn't contain a . in it.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

When indexOf() returns -1, it means that the value couldn't be found in the String. So, in this case, you're searching a String for '.' which doesn't exist in the String.

I would recommend that you always check the values of indexOf() after the call, and handle the -1 properly. For many cases, its probably sufficient to set it to either 0 or string.length(), depending on how you will use it later in your code.

Regardless, if you're expecting a '.' to exist and there isn't one, you'll need to debug through your code to find out what the value is, and where the '.' is missing.