Something odd

I noticed a particular If statement in my code is not executed.

I am trying to compare the length of 2 string buffers and append one of them and decrement the length of the other.

The code is an ugly hack because I am time constrained. I also do not have a debugger on the school lab computers so println statements I am using to find out what the program is doing:

// Pad Method

public static void pad( int pnum, int pwidth) throws IllegalArgumentException
{
if (pnum <= 0 || pwidth <=0 )
throw new IllegalArgumentException( "Plese enter a positive number and try again!" );


// create strings of pnum and pwidth to add to printf below
// string pad is added to create a blank space padding later on

String num = String.valueOf( pnum );
String width = String.valueOf( pwidth);
String pad = " ";

// convert strings value of pad and num to StringBuffer to modify its length later
StringBuffer sbpnum = new StringBuffer( num);
StringBuffer sbpwidth = new StringBuffer( width);

// if sbpwidth length is greater than sbpnum.length then add pad incrementally
if ( (sbpwidth.length()) > (sbpnum.length()))
{
System.out.println( " Entering the If sbpwidth.length > sbpnum.length\n");
System.out.println( "sbpwidth.length is" + sbpwidth.length() + " before deincrement\n");
sbpnum.append( pad );
sbpwidth.setLength((sbpwidth.length()) -1);
System.out.println( "After change sbpwidth.length is " + sbpwidth.length() );
}


Any idea what the java compiler is doign and why the condition never becomes true?