Need some really basic help

[Mayur]

Ok well I have to write a program for class and what I'm trying to do is get the value of a variable from an if statement and display that value. I just entered in the variable in the last system.out line where it says "Done" + answer1.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

        if( operator1.equals("+") ) {
            // operator was: +
            answer1 = number1 + number2;
            System.out.println("That gives: " + answer1);
        }
        
        else if( operator1.equals("-") ) {
            // operator was: -
            answer1 = number1 - number2;
            System.out.println("That gives: " + answer1);
        }
        
        else if( operator1.equals("*") ) {
            // operator was: *
            answer1 = number1 * number2;
            System.out.println("That gives: " + answer1);
        }
        
        else if( operator1.equals("/") ) {
            // operator was: /
            answer1 = number1 / number2;
            System.out.println("That gives: " + answer1);
        }
        else {
            System.out.println("You have entered an invalid operator.");
        }
        
        System.out.println("Done." + answer1);

[Fubarable]

What is not working?

What is your specific question?

[Mayur]

System.out.println("Done." + answer1);

I can't get it to display "answer1" because I keep getting an error saying answer1 may not have been initialized.

[Fubarable]

so why not just do what it's telling you to do -- initialize answer1?

For e.g., where you declare answer1, set it = to "":

String answer1 = "";

The error messages are your friends. Believe them and follow their suggestions and you'll go far.

[Mayur]

Wow I am an idiot lol, thank you for your help.

[Fubarable]

You're welcome. And remember that we all start out as idiots. and some like me have just have chosen to remain one.

[angryboy]

The error messages are your friends. Believe them and follow their suggestions and you'll go far.

lol. well, to be more specific, only the top one is your friend. the rest are just there to annoy you.