java password checker with special characters

Question

I'm very new to Java so please bear with me. My assignment: Ask the user to input a password and write a message stating whether or not it is acceptable. The password requirements:

1. the password is at least 8 characters long
2. it has upper case and lower case letters
3. at least one letter is followed by a number
4. it has one of the special characters $#?!_-=%

I really dont now what to do on number 3 and 4. Ive read something about regex but we didnt even had that in class. are there any other possible methods?

Answer 1

For number 3 you can use the cycle. Inside it, you can catch every letter via isLetter() method and then check the following element of your array by isDigit() method

boolean isLetterFollowedByNumber;
for (int[] a : nameOfYourArray) {
    if (Character.isLetter(array[i]) && Character.isLetter(array[i])) {
        isLetterFollowedByNumber = true;
    }
}

For number 4 you can just compare every element of your array of char with special characters

boolean hasCharacter;
for (int[] a : nameOfYourArray) {
    if (a == '$' || a == '#' || a == '?' || a == '!' || a == '_'- || a == '=' || a == '%') {
        hasCharacter = true;
    }
}

Both of my examples include for-each loop, but you can use for loop as well. Good luck with your task!