Initials (what am i doing wrong)

[genocist]

public class Name {


private String firstName;
private String middleName;
private String lastName;
private String initials;

Name() {

firstName = null;
middleName = null;
lastName = null;
}


Name(String newFirstName, String newMiddleName, String newLastName){
firstName = newFirstName;
middleName = newMiddleName;
lastName = newLastName;
}



public void setFirstName(String newFirstName){
firstName = newFirstName;
}
public void setMiddleName(String newMiddleName){
middleName = newMiddleName;
}
public void setLastName(String newLastName){
lastName = newLastName;
}



public String getFirstName(){
return firstName;
}
public String getMiddleName(){
return middleName;
}
public String getLastName(){
return lastName;
}


public void concat(){
String fullName=firstName.concat(middleName).co…
int lengthName=fullName.length();
System.out.println("The length in characters of " + firstName + " " +middleName+ " " + lastName + " is: " + lengthName);
}

public void substring(){
initials = firstName.substring(0) + middleName.substring(0) + lastName.substring(0);
System.out.println(initials);

}

public void lastNameFirst(){
String s = lastName.concat(", ").concat(firstName).concat(" "+middleName.substring(0));
System.out.println(s);
}
public void fullNameInitials(){
String f = firstName.concat(" " +middleName).concat(" "+lastName+" ") + initials;
System.out.println(f);
}
}


public class NewNamesList {
public static void main(String[] args){

Name[] namesList = new Name[2];

namesList[0] = new Name("Superman", "bin", "batman");
namesList[1] = new Name("Ironman", "bin", "flash");

namesList[0].concat();
namesList[0].substring();
namesList[0].lastNameFirst();
namesList[0].fullNameInitials();

namesList[1].concat();
namesList[1].substring();
namesList[1].lastNameFirst();
namesList[1].fullNameInitials();
}
}


this is what the teacher said

[genocist]

public String initials()—returns the person's initials (a 3-character string). The initials should be all in upper case, regardless of what case the name was entered in. (Hint: Instead of using charAt, use the substring method of String to get a string containing only the first letter—then you can upcase this one-letter string.)

[m00nchile]

Well, that is kinda wierd coming from a teacher, since there is a:

Character.toUpperCase('a');

method, so I don't see how a one character string would be any worse for wear then an acctual character from a charAt() method.

[genocist]

public char charAt(int index){
String initials = firstName.charAt(0) + middleName.charAt(0) + lastName.charAt(0);
System.out.println(intials);
}


i can use that, but it's not compiling for me.

[m00nchile]

No, you missed the point completely. Use the charAt() function to get the first letters of all 3 Strings, convert them to upper case with the Character.toUpperCase() method and use them to create another String, and return the newly formed String. charAt() is a method from the String class, I was saying that you can use that instead of substring. And seeing the charAt() method you've written up, I'd suggest to go back and start from the beginning, what are variables, what are methods, what are method arguments, what are methods supposed to return etc.

public char charAt(int index){ //what purpouse does the index serve?
      //why return
      //a char?
String initials = firstName.charAt(0) + middleName.charAt(0) + lastName.charAt(0); 
System.out.println(intials);
//you defined the methods return type to be char. Where is the return statement?
//and the return type should definately not be char, think about what this method is supposed to do
}

[genocist]

i would start over but this assignment is due in 30 mins. So only option i have is to turn in what i have.