IF loop error?

[noideanoclue]

I am writing a Battleship 'Game' in Java as part of familiarizing myself with the language, but have run into a problem which I can't solve, for some inexplicable reason one of my if loops isn't working as it should, I have no idea what the problem is and would appreciate some help.

 
while (y == 1)
{
System.out.println(" ");
System.out.print("Do you want to set the battleship to North, South, East, or West?");
bshipnsew = EasyInput.getln();
if (bshipnsew == "north")
{
System.out.println("NORTH");
y = 0;
}
else if (bshipnsew == "south")
{
System.out.println("SOUTH");
y = 0;
}
else if (bshipnsew == "east")
{
System.out.println("EAST");
y = 0;
}
else if (bshipnsew == "west")
{
System.out.println("WEST");
y = 0;
}
else System.out.println("You have selected invalidly, please retry");
}

bshipnsew is a string.

The problem is that even if you input a valid string, like "north" it will take you to the last else in the loop.

[prometheuzz]

Only primitives should be compared for equality with the == operator, all Objects (Strings are Objects) should be compared with their equals(...) method.

[noideanoclue]

Thanks for the help, it fixed the problem.

[prometheuzz]

Thanks for the help, it fixed the problem.

Good to hear that, and you're welcome.