Question

I don’t understand why I am getting an error of an incompatible data type, I am using a float for a financial value, I do not want to go past two decimal places!

I was under the impression that you could do this with a float, however I am getting an error returned to me saying,

Constructor Magazine cannot be applied to given types.

When I just make the float 7 as opposed to 7.99, it works fine!

Have I misunderstood what a float is, do I need to use a double instead?

I’ll just show my magazine class and a bit of my test class to demonstrate.

Test class:

The following is a segment from my test class trying to use a float to two decimal places:

public static void main()
{
    Magazine magazine1 = new Magazine("SanYonic Publishing", "Ayup Magazine", 7.99, "Yeshumenku Suni", "12/09/2011");

    System.out.println();
    magazine1.getEditor();
    magazine1.getDate();
    magazine1.getPublisher();
    magazine1.getPublicationTitle();
    magazine1.getPrice();
    System.out.println();
    …
}

Magazine class:

/**
 * Magazine Class - This class represents Magazine Objects
 */
public class Magazine extends Publication
{

    private String editor;
    private String date;

    public Magazine(String publisherIn , String publicationTitleIn, float priceIn, String editorIn, String dateIn)
    {
        super (publisherIn , publicationTitleIn, priceIn);

        editor = editorIn;
        date = dateIn;
    }

    public void setPublication(String publisherIn, String publicationTitleIn, float priceIn)
    {
        publisherIn = publisher;
        publicationTitleIn = publicationTitle;
        priceIn = price;
    }

    public String getEditor()
    {
        System.out.println("The editor of this magazine is " + editor);
        return (editor);
    }

    public String getDate()
    {
        System.out.println("The publication date of this magazine is " + date);
        return (date);
    }

    public String getPublisher()
    {
        System.out.println("The publisher of this magazine is " + publisher);
        return (publisher);
    }

    public String getPublicationTitle()
    {
        System.out.println("The publication title of this magazine is " + publicationTitle);
        return (publicationTitle);
    }

    public float getPrice()
    {
        System.out.println("The price of this magazine is £" + price);
        return (price);
    }
}

Answer 1

you need

Magazine magazine1 = new Magazine ("SanYonic Publishing", "Ayup Magazine", 7.99f, "Yeshumenku Suni", "12/09/2011");

note the 7.99f to fix the compile issue.

Note that both floats and doubles are not suitable for monetary calculations (if you care about accuracy), since they can only represent a discrete set of values. All currency calculations should be done with BigDecimal.