Question

How to insert values into a store string value.

I have a stored constant before my method that I will be using for a count variable

Then in my getCount method I have passed in Smith, but it is not getting into the constant when it is called.

public static final String TEST = String.format("SELECT count(first_name) FROM students WHERE last_name = %s",lastName);

    public getCount(String lastName){

        String lastName2 ="";
        lastName2 = lastName;

        count = TEST;

But when I print this out to the screen it says the TEST constant is SELECT count(first_name) FROM students WHERE last_name = lastName" instead of Smith

how can I get this value in here?

Answer 1

Your constant is only initialized once, (a variable defined as final cannot be changed once it is set) when you first run the program.

Make it a method instead:

String getSelectString(String lastName) {
    return String.format("SELECT count(first_name) FROM students WHERE last_name = %s", lastName);
}

Then you call the method whenever you want to access your “constant”. (Which isn’t really a constant)

public getCount(String lastName) {
    (...)
    count = getSelectString(lastName);
    (...)
}