Of course. And I am sure that you have already done this.
Improved program:
. . . class PhoneBookTest { public static void main ( String[] args) { ArrayList<Entry> phone = new ArrayList<Entry>(); phone.add( new Entry( "Amy", "123-4567") ); phone.add( new Entry( "Bob", "123-6780") ); phone.add( new Entry( "Hal", "789-1234") ); phone.add( new Entry( "Deb", "789-4457") ); phone.add( new Entry( "Zoe", "446-0210") ); String name; Scanner scan = new Scanner( System.in ); System.out.print("Enter name -->"); name = scan.next(); while( !name.equals("quit" ) ) { int spot = phone.indexOf( new Entry( name, null ) ) ; if ( spot >= 0 ) System.out.println( phone.elementAt( spot ) ) ; else System.out.println( name + " not found" ) ; System.out.print("Enter name -->") ; name = scan.next(); } } }
Of course, this is only a small example and not a practical program. But the techniques it uses are used in many industrial-strength programs.
The program would be more practical if the user had more freedom in entering the target name. For example, the user should be able to enter all lower case or all upper case. Where would you make a change to the program to allow this?