Java compare values, best way

Question

I has a method like this

private boolean validGrade(final StringBuilder grade) {
   boolean isValid = false;
   String semester = "semester"; 

   if ((grade.toString().contains("2o") && grade.toString().contains(semester))
                    || (grade.toString().contains("4o") && grade.toString().contains(semester))
                    || (grade.toString().contains("6o") && grade.toString().contains(semester))
                    || (grade.toString().contains("8o") && grade.toString().contains(semester))) {
    isValid = true;
            }
    }

And I want to replace it witn something like this:

private boolean doValidGradoAntComp(final StringBuilder grade) {
        boolean isValid = false;

        switch (grade.toString()) {
        case "2o semester":
            isValid = true;
            break;
        case "4o semester":
            isValid = true;
            break;
        case "6o semester":
            isValid = true;
            break;
        case "8o semester":
            isValid = true;
            break;
        default:
            break;
        }

        return isValid;
    }

And my doubt is: which one is better? Both works in the same way?

Answer 1

Why not iterate over the possibilities?

private boolean validGrade(final StringBuilder grade) {
    String gradeString = grade.toString();
    return List.of("2o", "4o", "6o", "8o")
        .stream()
        .map(x -> x + " semester")
        .collect(Collectors.toSet())
        .contains(gradeString);
}

Alternatively, if you're not looking for exact matches, do:

private boolean validGrade(final StringBuilder grade) {
    String gradeString = grade.toString();
    return gradeString.contains("semester") && List.of("2o", "4o", "6o", "8o")
        .stream()
        .anyMatch(gradeString::contains);
}

Finally, if your set of matches is inflexible (will always be "2o", "4o", "6o", "8o"), then you can just use a regular expression:

private boolean validGrade(final StringBuilder grade) {
    return grade.toString().matches("[2468]o semester"); //exact match
//  return grade.toString().matches("[2468]o.*semester|semester.*[2468]o"); //loose match
//  return grade.toString().matches(".*([2468]o.*semester|semester.*[2468]o).*"); //equivalent to contains
}