Question

so my homework is asking me only for class methods, but it’s requiring i turn in a .java and a .class file. well i’ve got code that theoretically should work, but it won’t compile no matter what i try. for example here’s one:

public class findFourLetterWord(String[] strings) {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
   for (int i = 0; i < strings.length; i++)
      if (strings[i].length()==4)
          return strings[i];
   return null;
}
}

and here’s the errors i’m getting:

8 errors found:
File: D:\School\CSC 2310\hw5_elemmons1\FindFourLetterWord.java  [line: 9]
Error: The public type findFourLetterWord must be defined in its own file
File: D:\School\CSC 2310\hw5_elemmons1\FindFourLetterWord.java  [line: 9]
Error: Syntax error on token "(", { expected
File: D:\School\CSC 2310\hw5_elemmons1\FindFourLetterWord.java  [line: 9]
Error: Syntax error on token ")", ; expected
File: D:\School\CSC 2310\hw5_elemmons1\FindFourLetterWord.java  [line: 9]
Error: Syntax error, insert "}" to complete Block
File: D:\School\CSC 2310\hw5_elemmons1\FindFourLetterWord.java  [line: 11]
Error: Cannot make a static reference to the non-static field strings
File: D:\School\CSC 2310\hw5_elemmons1\FindFourLetterWord.java  [line: 12]
Error: Cannot make a static reference to the non-static field strings
File: D:\School\CSC 2310\hw5_elemmons1\FindFourLetterWord.java  [line: 13]
Error: Cannot make a static reference to the non-static field strings
File: D:\School\CSC 2310\hw5_elemmons1\FindFourLetterWord.java  [line: 14]
Error: Void methods cannot return a value

any suggestions?

Answer 1

Assuming you are running Eclipse as your IDE, if you rearrange your code to something like this:

public class FindFourLetterWord {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

     for (int i = 0; i < args.length; i++) {

        if (args[i].length() == 4) {
           System.out.println(args[i]);
           break;
        }
     }
  }

}

and then save the changes (which automatically triggers the compilation), you can run your compiled program (.class file) from a command line, with a few arguments (namely contained in args), being the words search list:

$> cd /path/to/your/FindFourLetterWord.class/file
$> java FindFourLetterWord aba abba ab a

You’ll get the first 4-letter word among the words specified (abba).
This way you essentially invoked main method of the class (supplying it with a few String arguments), which is the entry point for each Java program.
As others already said, try to pick up on the basics first.