Thread: How to call a self created method from an object stored in an ArrayList ?

I'm a newbie, and I wholeheartedly admit that this should not be this hard.

I have an ArrayList of objects representing Questions, Correct Answers, and 3 "Wrong" Answers.
I have created a method named printIndividualQuestionItem() that prints out these items for each question, but I am unable to figure out how to call it from the main program.
How can I call the printIndividualQuestionItem() method to be able to print out an individual question and the corresponding answers?
Thank you in advance for any help.

import java.util.*;
 
public class Cpractice
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        ArrayList<IndividualQuestionItem> bubba = new ArrayList<IndividualQuestionItem>();
 
        bubba.add( new IndividualQuestionItem("a", "b", "c", "d", "e") );
        bubba.add( new IndividualQuestionItem("2", "2", "2", "2", "2") );
 
        for (int i=0; i<bubba.size(); i++) 
            System.out.println((IndividualQuestionItem) bubba.get(i)); 
 
        System.out.println("Finished");
    }
}
 
 
class IndividualQuestionItem
{
    private String Question = "";
    private String CorrectAnswer = "";
    private String WrongAnswerA = "";
    private String WrongAnswerB = "";
    private String WrongAnswerC = "";
 
    // Constructor for the IndividualQuestionItem class.
    // It takes 5 temporary variables to initialize the question items.
    public IndividualQuestionItem(String a, String b, String c, String d, String e)
    {
        Question = a;
        CorrectAnswer = b;
        WrongAnswerA = c;
        WrongAnswerB = d;
        WrongAnswerC = e;
    }
 
    // Print out the  for the IndividualQuestionItem class.
    //  public void printIndividualQuestionItem(IndividualQuestionItem temp)
    public void printIndividualQuestionItem()
    {
        System.out.print(this.Question + " ");
        System.out.print(this.CorrectAnswer + " ");
        System.out.print(this.WrongAnswerA + " ");
        System.out.print(this.WrongAnswerB + " ");
        System.out.println(this.WrongAnswerC);
        System.out.println();
    }
}

Originally Posted by Norm

You need a reference to an instance of the class to be able to call its methods.
To get at the contents of an ArrayList, call its get method to return a reference to one of the elements that it contains.

Not sure I quite understand, as I made the change in the code below and am now getting error:

Cpractice.java:14: error: 'void' type not allowed here
System.out.println(bubba.get(i).printIndividualQue stionItem());

1 error

import java.util.*;
 
public class Cpractice
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        ArrayList<IndividualQuestionItem> bubba = new ArrayList<IndividualQuestionItem>();
 
        bubba.add( new IndividualQuestionItem("a", "b", "c", "d", "e") );
        bubba.add( new IndividualQuestionItem("2", "2", "2", "2", "2") );
 
        for (int i=0; i<bubba.size(); i++) 
            System.out.println(bubba.get(i).printIndividualQuestionItem()); 
 
        System.out.println("Finished");
    }
}
 
 
class IndividualQuestionItem
{
    private String Question = "";
    private String CorrectAnswer = "";
    private String WrongAnswerA = "";
    private String WrongAnswerB = "";
    private String WrongAnswerC = "";
 
    // Constructor for the IndividualQuestionItem class.
    // It takes 5 temporary variables to initialize the question items.
    public IndividualQuestionItem(String a, String b, String c, String d, String e)
    {
        Question = a;
        CorrectAnswer = b;
        WrongAnswerA = c;
        WrongAnswerB = d;
        WrongAnswerC = e;
    }
 
    // Print out the  for the IndividualQuestionItem class.
    public void printIndividualQuestionItem()
    {
        System.out.print(this.Question + " ");
        System.out.print(this.CorrectAnswer + " ");
        System.out.print(this.WrongAnswerA + " ");
        System.out.print(this.WrongAnswerB + " ");
        System.out.println(this.WrongAnswerC);
        System.out.println();
    }
}

--- Update ---

Thank you very much.
I figured it out with your help.
My mistake was that I was trying to call a void method from within a System.out.println().
Once I got rid of that, all is well.
Below is the code that works.

 
import java.util.*;
 
public class Cpractice
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        ArrayList<IndividualQuestionItem> bubba = new ArrayList<IndividualQuestionItem>();
 
        bubba.add( new IndividualQuestionItem("a", "b", "c", "d", "e") );
        bubba.add( new IndividualQuestionItem("2", "2", "2", "2", "2") );
 
        for (int i=0; i<bubba.size(); i++) 
            bubba.get(i).printIndividualQuestionItem((IndividualQuestionItem) bubba.get(i)); 
 
        System.out.println("Finished");
    }
}
 
 
class IndividualQuestionItem
{
    private String Question = "";
    private String CorrectAnswer = "";
    private String WrongAnswerA = "";
    private String WrongAnswerB = "";
    private String WrongAnswerC = "";
 
 
    // Constructor for the IndividualQuestionItem class.
    // It takes 5 temporary variables to initialize the question items.
    public IndividualQuestionItem(String a, String b, String c, String d, String e)
    {
        Question = a;
        CorrectAnswer = b;
        WrongAnswerA = c;
        WrongAnswerB = d;
        WrongAnswerC = e;
    }
 
 
    // Print out the  for the IndividualQuestionItem class.
    public void printIndividualQuestionItem(IndividualQuestionItem temp)
    {
        System.out.print(temp.Question + " ");
        System.out.print(temp.CorrectAnswer + " ");
        System.out.print(temp.WrongAnswerA + " ");
        System.out.print(temp.WrongAnswerB + " ");
        System.out.println(temp.WrongAnswerC);
        System.out.println();
    }
}

You are correct.
I removed the method argument, and it works just fine.
Thank you.