Thread: Can't Enter Info from Keyboard in a Method

I'm sure I am doing something stupid but I can't find it. I want to enter the triangle data in the method and every time I try to compile the program I get the error message--cannot find symbol. Please tell me what I have done wrong.

import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

public class trianglemethod {

public static void main(String [] args)
{
Scanner kbreader = new Scanner (System.in);
int choice = 0;
String ans = "y";

do
{
System.out.println("Are you entering");
System.out.println("1. leg and leg");
System.out.println("2. leg and hypotenuse");
choice = kbreader.nextInt();
kbreader.nextLine();
if (choice == 1)
legs();
// else
// hypo();
kbreader.nextLine();
System.out.println("Would you like to run this again? (Y/N)");
ans = kbreader.nextLine();
}
while (ans.equalsIgnoreCase("Y"));
}//main

public static void legs()
{
double leg1=0;
double leg2=0;
double hypot=0;
System.out.println("Enter the values for leg1 and leg2");
leg1 = kbreader.nextDouble(); //the error shows up on this line
leg2 = kbreader.nextDouble(); // and this line
hypot = Math.sqrt(leg1*leg1 + leg2 * leg2);
System.out.println("The sides of the triangle are: "+leg1+" "+leg2+" "+ hypot);
}



}

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Please post your code correctly per the above link.

Originally Posted by Norm

Please post the full text of the error message that shows what symbol is not being found and on what line it is coded.

Norm,

This is the error message I get.

error: cannot find symbol line 44
error: cannot find symbol line 45

I "commented" exactly where the errors are in my original post. I'm extremely frustrated with this. I am working on lesson plans and can't figure this out.

[highlight = Java]
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
 
public class trianglemethod {
 
    public static void main(String [] args) 
    {
    	Scanner kbreader = new Scanner (System.in);
    	int choice = 0;
    	String ans = "y";
 
    	do
    	{
    	System.out.println("Are you entering");
    	System.out.println("1.  leg and leg");
    	System.out.println("2.  leg and hypotenuse");
    	choice = kbreader.nextInt();
    	kbreader.nextLine();
    	if (choice == 1)
    		legs();
    //	else 
    //		hypo();
        kbreader.nextLine();
    	System.out.println("Would you like to run this again? (Y/N)");
    	ans = kbreader.nextLine();
    	}
    	while (ans.equalsIgnoreCase("Y"));
    }//main
 
    public static void legs()
    {
    	double leg1=0;
    	double leg2=0;
    	double hypot=0;
    	System.out.println("Enter the values for leg1 and leg2");
    	leg1 = kbreader.nextDouble();
    	leg2 = kbreader.nextDouble();
    	hypot = Math.sqrt(leg1*leg1 + leg2 * leg2);
    	System.out.println("The sides of the triangle are:  "+leg1+"  "+leg2+"  "+ hypot);
    }
 
 
 
}
[/highlight]

Usually it tells me something like ; expected and the line number. I'm so stressed over this I keep messing with it and I have confused myself even more now. If I put the line Scanner kbreader = new Scanner (System.in); inside the method it works just fine. Any idea why?

By convention in Java, class names begin with capital letters and method and variable names begin with lowercase letters. Please follow Java's naming conventions.

Any idea why?

Because kbreader in your original code is declared inside main() and is therefore 'local' to main(), and the 'symbol kbreader' is unknown (undeclared, undefined, etc.) inside the method legs(). Once you declared and initialized A SECOND variable named 'kbreader' local to the method legs(), the error went away. Even though the error went away and your program ran without error, the original condition remained.