Not recognizing a variable in a method

[Jamison5213]

Everything in my program would work if my program would recognize the variable called "gravity". It's these 2 lines.

[B]mass[count] = ((140.0 * 433.59237) / gravity[count]); // calculates mass based on planet's gravity
		weight[count] = mass[count] * gravity[count]; // calculates weight based on mass[/B]

My program is taking the values of the gravities of all the planets in our solar system from a text file and using them to calculate the weight of an individual weighing 140 pounds. Here is the entire code:

/**
 * This program calculates the weight of an individual on each planet in the solar system.
 *
 *
 * Jamison Hyman
 * 2/1/2010
 */
import java.io.File;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class WeightOnPlanetsV1
{
	
	public static void printHeadings( )  //notice that this method is void, nothing is returned
    {
        System.out.printf("%37s\n","My Weight on the Planets");
        System.out.println();
        System.out.printf("%s%20s%20s\n","Planet","Gravity","Weight(lbs)");
        System.out.println("========================================================");
    }

// Imports Gravity values from text file.

public static double [] loadGravity( ) throws IOException
    {
      Scanner in = new Scanner(new File("GravityValues.txt"));
        int count = 0;
        double [] gravity = new double [9];
        while(in.hasNext()) {
        double temp = in.nextDouble();
        gravity[count] = temp/2.45;
        count++;
        }
        in.close();
        
        return gravity;
    }
    
    // Calculates weight of the user on all planets!
public static double [] calculateWeight( )
{
	double [] mass = new double [9];
	double [] weight = new double [9];
	int count = 0;
	for (int i = 0; i < 9; i++)
	{
		mass[count] = ((140.0 * 433.59237) / gravity[count]); // calculates mass based on planet's gravity
		weight[count] = mass[count] * gravity[count]; // calculates weight based on mass
		count++;
	}
	return weight;
	
	
}
       
	// Starts the MAIN!	
	public static void main(String[ ] args) throws IOException
    {    	
    	double [] gravity = loadGravity();
    	printHeadings();
    	String [] planets = {"Mercury", "Venus", "Earth", "Mars", "Jupiter", "Saturn", "Uranus", "Neptune", "Pluto"};	    	
    	double [] weight = calculateWeight();	    		
                  for(int y = 0; y < 9 ; y++)
           {
       System.out.printf("%-11s", planets[y]);     
       System.out.printf("%13.2f", gravity[y]); 
       System.out.printf("%20.2f\n",weight[y]);
           }
   
   
    	
    } // end main
 } // end class

[Fubarable]

It's a matter of scope here. Your gravity variable is declared in the main but you're trying to use it in calculateWeight() where it hasn't been declared, and so there it is invisible. So instead you should declare gravity and call loadGravity in the calculateWeight method only.

[Supamagier]

Or you could make the gravity variable global :)
Than, however, you should make it static (ugly) or call the constructor of your class in the main and handle everything in there, which is better.

[Jamison5213]

Do you mean like this? I changed it to this but it still doesn't work. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

/**
 * This program calculates the weight of an individual on each planet in the solar system.
 *
 *
 * Jamison Hyman
 * 2/1/2010
 */
import java.io.File;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class WeightOnPlanetsV1
{
	
	public static void printHeadings( )  //notice that this method is void, nothing is returned
    {
        System.out.printf("%37s\n","My Weight on the Planets");
        System.out.println();
        System.out.printf("%s%20s%20s\n","Planet","Gravity","Weight(lbs)");
        System.out.println("========================================================");
    }


public static double [] loadGravity( ) throws IOException
    {
      Scanner in = new Scanner(new File("GravityValues.txt"));
        int count = 0;
        while(in.hasNext()) 
        {
        double temp = in.nextDouble();
        gravity[count] = temp/2.45;
        count++;
        }
        in.close();
      return gravity;
    }
  public static double [] calculateWeight()
  {
  	double [] gravity = new double [9];
  	loadGravity();
    double [] mass = new double [9];
	double [] weight = new double [9];
	int count = 0;
	for (int i = 0; i < 9; i++)
	{
		mass[count] = ((140.0 * 433.59237) / gravity[count]); // calculates mass based on planet's gravity
		weight[count] = mass[count] * gravity[count]; // calculates weight based on mass
		count++;
	}
	
	return weight;
        
    }
    
	// Starts the MAIN!	
	public static void main(String[ ] args) throws IOException
    {    	
    	printHeadings();
    	String [] planets = {"Mercury", "Venus", "Earth", "Mars", "Jupiter", "Saturn", "Uranus", "Neptune", "Pluto"};	    	
       	calculateWeight();
       	double [] weight = calculateWeight();			
                  for(int y = 0; y < 9 ; y++)
           {
       System.out.printf("%-11s", planets[y]);     
       System.out.printf("%13.2f", gravity[y]); 
       System.out.printf("%20.2f\n",weight[y]);
           }
    } // end main
 } // end class

[Jamison5213]

Okay, I got it to work now.