Question

I have the int cannot be dereferenced error in the below code where I have //error is here. I’m confused because the variable b is used to reference a spot in the empl array later in the line without showing as an error. So how do I fix this and why is it generating an error?
I would appreciate any help. Example code would be great too as that seems to be the way I learn best. Thanks!

public static void bubbleSort(Employee[] empl) {
    for (int a = 1; a < empl.length; a++) 
    {
        for (int b = 0; b < empl.length - a; b++) 
        {
            if (((empl[b].//error is here
                    getEmployeeNumber()).compareTo
                   ((empl[b + 1].getEmployeeNumber()))) > 0) 
            {
               // swap employees[b] with employees[b+1]
               Employee temp = empl[b];
               empl[b] = empl[b + 1];
               empl[b + 1] = temp;
            }
        }
    }
}

Edit: Any other suggestions for sorting the array by Employee Number are welcome.

Answer 1

getEmployeeNumber() apparently returns an int.

int is a primitive type, not an object.
Therefore, you cannot call methods like compareTo() on it.