For checking Strings for letters you can use regular expressions for example:
someString.matches("[A-F]");
For checking numbers and stopping the program crashing, I have a quite simple class you can find below where you can define the range of values you want.
Here
public int readInt(String prompt, int min, int max)
{
Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
int number = 0;
//Run once and loop until the input is within the specified range.
do
{
//Print users message.
System.out.printf("\n%s > ", prompt);
//Prevent string input crashing the program.
while (!scan.hasNextInt())
{
System.out.printf("Input doesn't match specifications. Try again.");
System.out.printf("\n%s > ", prompt);
scan.next();
}
//Set the number.
number = scan.nextInt();
//If the number is outside range print an error message.
if (number < min || number > max)
System.out.printf("Input doesn't match specifications. Try again.");
} while (number < min || number > max);
return number;
}