Cannot accsess array of objects inside same class?

Question

Ive got this kinda stupid exam question in which I'm told to make an array of objects IN MAIN method. I defined the class Account with two variables - String owner and double amount.

Then I'm told to make the Account class handle change of values sum of all amounts. etc. But I cant figure out what I'm doing wrong - I cannot get access to the array from getAmount().

public static void main(String[] args) 
{
    Account[] account = new Account[10];
    for ( int i=0; i<account.length; i++) 
    {
    account[i]=new Account();
    }
    account[0].owner = "Thomas";
    account[0].amount = 24325;
    System.out.println(getAmount(0)); //<- dont work,  but works with account[0].amount
}

public static double getAmount(int x) 
{
    double s = account[x].amount;   //<<------- CANNOT FIND SYMBOL
    return s;
}

Eran · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-09 09:11:28Z

2

account is local to the main method, so it can't be accessed from other methods unless passed to them as a parameter.

An alternative is to declare it as a static member:

static Account[] account = new Account[10];

public static void main(String[] args) 
{
    for ( int i=0; i<account.length; i++) 
    {
        account[i]=new Account();
    }
    account[0].owner = "Thomas";
    account[0].amount = 24325;
    System.out.println(getAmount(0));
}

answered Nov 9, 2014 at 9:11

Eran

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2 Comments

Thomas Over a year ago

thing is that i'm told to make the array in the main method.

Eran Over a year ago

@ThomasWegener You can still initialize it in the main method, but you must declare it outside in order to access it from a different method. If you want to keep it local to main, getAmount can accept the array as a parameter - getAmount(account,0)

Brank Victoria · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-09 09:27:25Z

In this case account is a local variable for main, if you want to use the method getAmount you have two options: -Declare the array as static and put it out of the main method (the array would be a global variable) -Pass the array as a parameter in getAmount.

public static void main(String[] args) 
{
    Account[] account = new Account[10];
    for ( int i=0; i<account.length; i++) 
    {
    account[i]=new Account();
    }
    account[0].owner = "Thomas";
    account[0].amount = 24325;
    System.out.println(getAmount(0), account); //<- dont work,  but works with account[0].amount
}
public static double getAmount(int x, Account[] account) 
{
    double s = account[x].amount;   //<<------- CANNOT FIND SYMBOL
    return s;
}

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