Press a button on arduino to open a file?

i have 3 switches set up to select the level 1,2 and 3. when the big red button is pressed that sends the level to gobetwino and it opens the playlist i want. The only problem i have now is that the "vallev" in my code is always "0" zero. how would i fix that? I am very sorry for the simple questions.
thanks
demir

/*
 * Emergency Party Button
 * Sends serial commands to the program gobetwino through serial port
 */
 
int inputPin1 = 5;               // sets the input pins
int inputPin2 = 6;
int inputPin3 = 7;
int inputPin4 = 8;
int vallev=0;                    //stores level value
int val = 0;                    // variable for reading the pin status

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600); 
  pinMode(inputPin1, INPUT);     // declares pushbuttons as input
  pinMode(inputPin2, INPUT);
  pinMode(inputPin3, INPUT);
  pinMode(inputPin4, INPUT);
}

void loop(){
  val = digitalRead(inputPin1);  // read input value
  if (val == HIGH) {            // check if the input is HIGH
  vallev == 1;                   // send to vallev
  delay(1000);                  // delay to limit to 1 value per button press
  }
  val = digitalRead(inputPin2);  // read input value
  if (val == HIGH) {            // check if the input is HIGH
  vallev == 2;                   // send to vallev
  delay(1000);                  // delay to limit to 1 value per button press
  }
  val = digitalRead(inputPin3);  // read input value
  if (val == HIGH) {            // check if the input is HIGH
  vallev == 3;                   // send to vallev
  delay(1000);                  // delay to limit to 1 value per button press
  }
  
  val = digitalRead(inputPin4);  // read input value
  if (val == HIGH) {            // check if the input is HIGH
  Serial.print("#S|LEVEL");  // send command by serial port
  Serial.print(vallev);
  Serial.println("|[]#");    // Gobetwino intperets this as a single line
                            //looking like this "#S|LEVEL(vallev)|[]#"
  delay(1000);
  } 
}