How to store a value for later use?
<p>I am a new user and I have a "noob" question. We are being taught Java in school and I have a question about one of our activities. One requirement is to take in student info (such as course) and convert them to a single letter (I assume use .charAt??) and then later on count how many students are enrolled into that course. I have the student info down here:</p>

<pre><code>import java.util.*;
import java.lang.*;
public class CourseTallier 
{
public static void main (String[] args) 
{
    String student = inputStudInfo();
}
public static String inputStudInfo () 
{
    Scanner kbd = new Scanner(System.in);
    int limit = 0, idnum = 0;
    String college = "";
    System.out.println("Please input a valid ID number:");
    idnum = Integer.parseInt(kbd.nextLine());
    if (idnum == 0)
    {
        System.out.println("Thank you for using this program.");
        System.exit(0);
    }
    while (idnum &lt; limit) {
        System.out.println("Invalid ID number. Please enter a positive integer:");
        idnum = Integer.parseInt(kbd.nextLine());
    }
    System.out.println("Please enter a valid course (BLIS, BSCS, BSIS, or BSIT");
    college = kbd.nextLine();
    while(!college.equalsIgnoreCase("BLIS") &amp;&amp; !college.equalsIgnoreCase("BSCS") &amp;&amp; !college.equalsIgnoreCase("BSIS") &amp;&amp; !college.equalsIgnoreCase("BSIT"))
    {
        System.out.println("Invalid course. Please enter either BLIS, BSCS, BSIS, or BSIT");
        college = kbd.nextLine();
    }
    return college;
}
public static Character convertCourse (String college) 
{
}
</code></pre>

<p>and as you can see I am stuck at the "Convert Course" method (modular is required). I was wondering how would I convert something like "BLIS" to a single character "L" and then create another method that counts the number of how many students are enrolled in that course.</p>

<p>I am not asking for someone to complete this program for me cause that would be cheating. I am simply asking someone for a shove in the right direction. Your help is very much appreciated.</p>

<p>Edit: As asked here are the exact requirements:
<a href="http://i.stack.imgur.com/MiCBS.jpg" rel="nofollow">Program</a></p>