Variable not initialized after while loop

[ejs7597]

I have some code that contains the variable hoursWorked. My code has the user input the hoursWorked and it functions. Now I want to put this line of code into a while loop to make loop until the entered value is >0. When I do this the variable hoursWorked which is used after this while statement now thinks it isn't initialized after the while statement. Why would adding the while loop make the program think the hoursWorked varialble isn't initialized later on in the code?

[emceenugget]

it would help if we saw your code... and if your variable is an int, i think it's automatically initialized to 0.

[mtyoung]

are you declaring the variable inside the while loop?

[ejs7597]

double hoursWorked;
double hourlyRate;
double sum;
String employeeName = "null";

while(!employeeName.equals("stop")) {

System.out.println("Enter Employee Name"); //prompt
employeeName = input.nextLine(); //read first number from user

if (employeeName.equals("stop"))
break;
int verify = -1;
while(verify <0) {
System.out.print( "Enter Hours Worked: " ); // prompt
hoursWorked = input.nextDouble(); // read second number from user
if (hoursWorked <0)
System.out.println("Please enter a positive number");
else
verify = 1;
}
System.out.print( "Enter Hourly Rate: " ); // prompt
hourlyRate = input.nextDouble(); // read second number from user

sum = hourlyRate*hoursWorked;

[ejs7597]

No I declare it before the while loop.

[mtyoung]

it is possible that your code may not enter the while loop
hoursWorked may not assign to any value,
i suggest you to initialize it to 0

[ejs7597]

That was it since I hadn't assigned a value to hoursWorked it was causing the error when I tried to use it in a calculation later. THANKS A BUNCH.