I have decided to try and learn a little in java tonight and i have just been trying some stuff with things i have learned. My question is in an if statement how to i make two stings to be true. Here is what i have so far. if ("male".equals(gender)) && ("brendan".equals(name)) the problem i am pretty sure is the && but i am not sure. also my other question is with gender it should either be male or female. I want to have if statement with male and another for female. For this do i just do another if. For eg if ("male".equals(gender)) && ("brendan".equals(name)) { System.out.println("blah blah"); } else { System.out.println(" wrong wrong"); } if ("female".equals(gender)) { System.out.println("blah blah2"); } else { System.out.println(" wrong wrong 2"); } hope that makes sense. Any help would be great.