Morse code translating morse into language java

Question

I have a bit of an issue with my morse code, especificly I want it to print out a single question mark when the user inputs more than just morse code, i.e .-asd, the output should be "?", currently i have it just skipping to the next line,

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Morse {
     static String[] MORSE = {
        ".-" ,"-...","-.-.","-.." ,"." , //A,B,C,D,E
        "..-.","--." ,"....",".." ,".---", //F,G,H,I,J
        "-.-" ,".-..","--" ,"-." ,"---" , //K,L,M,N,O
        ".--.","--.-",".-." ,"..." ,"-" , //P,Q,R,S,T
        "..-" ,"...-",".--", "-..-","-.--", //U,V,W,X,Y
        "--.." //Z
    };
     public static void main(String[] args){

     Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);

     String line;
     while(!(line = input.nextLine().toUpperCase()).equals("*")){
         String[] words = line.split(" ");
         String output = "";

         for(int i = 0; i< words.length; ++i){
             if(words[i].length() == 0){
                 output += " ";
                 continue;
             }
             if(words[i].charAt(0) == '-' || words[i].charAt(0) == '.'){ //if it begins as morse code
                 for (int d = 0; d < MORSE.length; ++d) {
                     if(words[i].equals(MORSE[d]))
                         output += (char)('A'+d);
                 } //i wanted here to make a condition where if it starts as morse and follows with other things other than morse print out a single "?".
             } else System.out.print("?") //prints ("?") if its not morse code

Answer 1

Make RegEx pattern at the top outside any loops:

java.util.regex.Pattern regExPattern= java.util.regex.Pattern.compile("([\\.,\\-]){1,}");

then inside loop instead of

   if(words[i].charAt(0) == '-' || words[i].charAt(0) == '.')

your if will be:

        if(regExPattern.matcher(words[i]).matches()) {
           //it is MORSE code - translate it
           ...
        } else {
           // it is something else 
           System.out.print("?")
         }

BTW: there are more better solutions rather than using arrays. Check code in my answer there: Morse Code Translator

Just wondering from where that assignment came :-) ? It is second similar question in last 3 days...

UPD: only for loops (also it eliminates non-morse .- sequences)

for (int i = 0; i < words.length; ++i) {
        boolean gotMorse = false;
        for (int d = 0; d < MORSE.length; d++) {
            if (MORSE[d].equals(words[i])) {
                // code found.
                output += (char) ('A' + d);
                gotMorse = true;
                break;
            }
        }
        if (!gotMorse) {
            output += "?";
            // or System.out.print("?"); if you do not need ? in the output
        }

    }

Q: how do you plan to deal with special MORSE (e.g. ...--- ) or it is not in assignement?