i am doing a university assigment and im having some problems. Basically theres a series of linked lists in the setup of a bank account. i have to search for a sepcific account.

i have the basic set up okay, a for statement thats going through the accounts and compares the account number with the search string:

Code:
	/**
     * Search Accounts
     */	
	public static int seqSearch(CompNode L, Comparable target)
	{
	CompNode temp = L;
	boolean found = false;
	int position = 1;
	for (int i = 0; i<countList(L); i++)
	{
		if (target == temp.getElement())
			{
			System.out.println ("ITEM FOUND");
			found = true;
			return position;
		}
		else
		{
			System.out.println (temp.getElement());
			temp = temp.getNext();
			System.out.println ("ITEM NOT FOUND");
		}			
	}
	return position;		
	}
problem is temp.getelement() returns the full account where as i only need the account number.

Now i dont want someone to give me the code i need straight off, id never learn that way but basically a point in the right direction or a sample bit of code

Thanks

nino