Java - Why can't I use charAt() to see if a char equals another?

if ( fieldNames.charAt(4) == 'f' )

because "f" is a String and fieldNames.charAt(4) is a char. you should use 'f' for check char

"g" == "h" works because both g and h are Strings

and you shouldn't use "g" == "h" you should use "g".equals("h") instead . you can use == for primitive data types like char,int,boolean....etc.but for the objects like String it's really different. To know why read this

but you can use also

'g' == 'h' 

you should wrap Strings by double quotation and char by single quotation

String s="g";

char c='g';

but char can only have one character but String can have more than one

String s="gg";  valid

char c='gg';  not valid