The Scanner class also helps when you want the user to be able to type more than one value on a line. Suppose we want to read in an age, a height and the number of children. So the data might be something like:

42 1.85 2

Before Java 5, you would need to use something like StringTokenizer to break apart a line into separate items (often called tokens):

0100:       String tLine = tKeyboard.readLine();
0101:       StringTokenizer tTokens = new StringTokenizer(tLine);
0102:       String tAgeString = tTokens.nextToken();
0103:       int tAge = Integer.parseInt(tAgeString);
0104:       String tHeightString = tTokens.nextToken();
0105:       double tHeight = Double.parseDouble(tHeightString);
0106:       String tNumberOfChildrenString = tTokens.nextToken();
0107:       int tNumberOfChildren = Integer.parseInt(tNumberOfChildrenString);

However, the nextXXX methods of the Scanner class can cope with several items being on the same line. So the data:

42 1.85 2

can be read by the following code:

0120:       int tAge = tScanner.nextInt();
0121:       double tHeight = tScanner.nextDouble();
0122:       int tNumberOfChildren = tScanner.nextInt();

By default, tokens are assumed to be separated by whitespace. However, you can easily arrange for the scanner to use delimiters other than whitespace.