//there is absolutely no reason for the input to be a double. No one will be inputting any decimal past the 3, so there is no reason to waste memory on that. Float > Double in this case if you value effective programming. import java.io.BufferedReader; import java.io.InputStreamReader; class Fever { public static void main(String[] args) throws java.io.IOException { float temp; System.out.println("input temp:"); BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); temp = Float.parseFloat(input.readLine()); if (temp > 98.6){ System.out.println("you have a fever."); } else { System.out.println("you are not running a fever."); } } } //By msglm; Licensed under the AGPL v3