Question

Basic question here, can I put String variables into a position in a string array along with more text?

Here’s what I’m trying to do

public static final String CAT_BUD_TAB = "CAT_BUD_TAB";
public static final String inI = "INSERT INTO ";
public static final String val = " VALUES ";

public static final String[] catInsertArray = new String[13];

catInsertArray[0] = inI + CAT_BUD_TAB + val + "(null, 'Student Loan', 'in', 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0, 0 );";

But obviously that’s not going to work because it’s expecting ” to mark the start of the string to be contained. Is there anyway this will work?

EDIT

Nope its not the SQL im concerned with, I’m just trying to combine a bit of text with text from a string variable and hold them all as one long string in an array. Might have just made it more confusing, if so ignore this edit and just re-read the original question.

Got rid of the parenthesis as suggested and updated the code block above with all the relevant code.

but eclipse is still saying there’s a “syntax error on tokens, delete these tokens” And has squiggly red lined the whole line of code (catInsertArray[0] = ….)

pastebin of the class here if you’d be good enough to take a look http://pastebin.com/cKa0sKEj

Answer 1

I suspect your original problem was having code that was outside of a method body. This demo class will compile and run, and has comments pointing out what you might have been doing vs. what would be correct.

public class StringTest 
{

    public static final String crT = "CREATE TABLE ";
    public static final String inI = "INSERT INTO ";
    public static final String val = " VALUES ";

    public static final String[] catInsertArray = new String[13];

    // you were probably doing this, which is not allowed in Java because you are writing code outside of a method body or static initializer block
    //catInsertArray[0] = inI + val + "(null, 'Student Loan', 'in', 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0, 0 );"; 

    static
    {
         // static initialize your static member
         catInsertArray[0] = inI + val + "(null, 'Student Loan', 'in', 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0, 0 );"; 
    }

    public static void main(String [] args)
    {
        // You can put code in a method
        //catInsertArray[0] = inI + val + "(null, 'Student Loan', 'in', 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0, 0 );"; 

    }
}

From your new comment – the code you have in your pastebin link has a few issues. One thing I have is why you are declaring a nested interface inside your DatabaseConstants class? It seems unnecessary since you’re making a class for constants.

Additionally, you still leave out a static initializer block to put things into your String array. See the code below.

package com.geistware.studentbudgetapp;

import android.provider.BaseColumns;

public class  DatabaseConstants {

    //Variables for DDL statements and such
    public static final String crT = "CREATE TABLE ";
    public static final String inI = "INSERT INTO ";
    public static final String val = " VALUES ";

    //Table Names
    public static final String CAT_BUD_TAB = "CAT_BUD_TAB";
    public static final String TWO_WEE_TAB = "TWO_WEE_TAB";

    //columns from the category_budget_table
    public static final String CAT_ITEM = "CAT_ITEM";
    public static final String IN_OUT = "IN_OUT";
    public static final String BUDGET_AMOUNT = "BUDGET_AMOUNT";
    public static final String ACTUAL_AMOUNT = "ACTUAL_AMOUNT";
    public static final String AMOUNT_STRAYED = "AMOUNT_STRAYED";
    public static final String OVERBUDGET_TF = "OVERBUDGET_TF";
    public static final String AUTOSPEND_TF = "AUTOSPEND_TF";

    //Initial DDL Statements and Initial INSERT statements to populate table
    public static final String createCATBUDTAB = (crT + CAT_BUD_TAB + 
            "(_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, CAT_ITEM TEXT, IN_OUT TEXT, BUDGET_AMOUNT REAL, ACTUAL_AMOUNT REAL, AMOUNT_STRAYED REAL, OVERBUDGET_TF INTEGER, AUTOSPEND_TF INTEGER);");
    public static final String createTWOWEETAB = (crT + TWO_WEE_TAB + 
            "(_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, SUB_CAT_ITEM TEXT, CAT_ITEM TEXT, COST REAL, ESSENTIAL_TF INTEGER, CURRENT_LAST TEXT, WEEK_ID INTEGER);");

    public static String[] catInsertArray = new String[13];

    // you still need to to put this code into a static initializer block
    static
    {
        catInsertArray[0] = inI + CAT_BUD_TAB + val + "(null, 'Student Loan', 'in', 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0, 0 );";
    }

}

However, for something like a list of constants, I’d prefer to use an enumeration, but hopefully this gets you on the right track to at least getting a working build.