New to this forum...need help please with input utility class

[cmb64]

hi guys,

new here...and fairly new to java...about 3 months under my belt

i am trying to write a utility class to handle all my user input for my program im writing

here is the code,then i will explain the problem

import java.util.InputMismatchException;
import java.util.Scanner;

public class InputUtility {

    static Scanner userInput = new Scanner(System.in);

    private InputUtility() {
    }

    public static int getNumber() {

        System.out.println("Enter a number:");

        while (!userInput.hasNextInt()) {
            userInput.next();  //this line important to ask for input again so that 18 doesnt just do an infinite loop
            System.out.println("Please enter a number");
        }

        int userNumber = userInput.nextInt();
        //System.out.println(userNumber);
        return userNumber;
    }

    public static String getString() {

        System.out.println("Enter characters:");

        String userCharacters = userInput.nextLine();

        return userCharacters;
    }
}

my main will just call the methods etc,there is no code in my main

the problem is that i cant print out the variables userNumber and userCharacters in my main method...i cant even see them...
i want to be able to capture user input for various areas in my program...how can i accomplish this?

thanks for reading

[Norm]

cant print out the variables userNumber and userCharacters in my main method.

Those variables are defined locally to the methods they are in which means they are not available to other methods.

However their values are returned by the methods that they are defined in. The code that calls those methods should save the value that is returned.

See also: https://coderanch.com/t/676089/java/print-returned