Menu selection wont stay on selected option

Question

My Menu has a START and a QUIT option. I'm using a controller's D-PAD for selection. The game begins with START highlighted. When I push the down button on the D-PAD, it highlights the QUIT option. Problem is when I release the down button, it returns to highlighting START.

Is there a way to possibly hold the position so that if I highlight QUIT, it will stay highlighted after releasing the button?

//First starts with START highlighted:

if(menuSelect == 1 && GC.getDPADDir() == 7){ // if QUIT is highlighted, push up
        menuSelect++;
    }
    else if(GC.isButtonPressed(1)){
        // go to game
        sbg.enterState(1);
    }

if(menuSelect == 2 && GC.getDPADDir() == 1){ // if start is highlighted, push down
        menuSelect--;       
    }
    else if(GC.isButtonPressed(1)){
        // quit
        System.exit(0);
    }

Answer 1

Not exactly what you are looking for but perhaps you could try it like so:

private int maxMenuItems  = 2;
private int menuSelect  = 1;

-Check for direction first

if(GC.getDPADDir() == 7){
        menuSelect++;
        if(menuSelect > maxMenuItems) menuSelect  = maxMenuItems; 
    }
else if(GC.getDPADDir() == 1){ 
        menuSelect--;
        if(menuSelect < 1) menuSelect = 1;
    }

-Then loop over the button press check

if(GC.isButtonPressed(1)){
   switch(menuSelect){
       case 1:
       sbg.enterState(1);
       break;
       case 2:
       System.exit(0);
       break;
   }
}

I havn't done much with menus and what not. But I think your flaw is within your if else "cluster". It would also be easier to use a base of 0. You might want to iterate over your items or reference them by index if you were to put them in an array.