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Thread: Using \n escape sequence in a toString method

  1. #1
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    Default Using \n escape sequence in a toString method

    Hello all,
    I'm working on a homework problem that's due this evening. The prob asks to create a toString method that returns a "nicely formatted, multi-line description" of the class objects I created. The class is called "Book" and its objects are title, author, publisher, and copyright date. My toString code trying to use \n for a new line is as follows:

    return ("Book - Title: "+ title\n"Author: "+ author\n"Publisher: " + publisher\n"Copyright: " + copyright);

    This gives me several errors: syntax errors on the token n, syntax error insert ")" to complete expression, n cannot be resolved to a variable, syntax error on token "Invalid Character", ( expected...where am I going wrong? The only example I found in my text book uses the \n sequence in a System.out.println method. Can this even be used in a toString method?

    I'm veeeeery new to java/code writing so any help would be much appreciated.

    Thanks,
    -C


  2. #2
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    Default Re: Using \n escape sequence in a toString method

    \n needs to be within the quotations and you need to concatenate each variable/String with the + operator.
    Please use [highlight=Java]//code goes here...[/highlight] tags when posting your code

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Using \n escape sequence in a toString method

    Thanks for the help newbie! This did help create newlines for each item, but now its calling Title: " + title", Author: "+ author" instead of getting the data I set up for the 3 books I created in my driver class. Here's the code for my Book class and the code for driver class called Bookshelf...do you see any problems with them?
    public class Book {
    // Instance data
    private String title;
    private String author;
    private String publisher;
    private int copyright;



    // Constructor
    public Book(String title, String author, String publisher, int copyright) {
    this.title = title;
    this.author = author;
    this.publisher = publisher;
    this.copyright = copyright;
    }


    // getters
    public String getTitle() {
    return title;
    }

    public String getAuthor() {
    return author;
    }

    public String getPublisher() {
    return publisher;
    }

    public int getCopyright() {
    return copyright;
    }

    //setters
    public void setTitle(String newTitle) {
    title = newTitle;
    }

    public void setAuthor(String newAuthor) {
    author = newAuthor;
    }

    public void setPublisher(String newPublisher) {
    publisher = newPublisher;
    }

    public void setCopyright(int newCopyright) {
    copyright = newCopyright;
    }

    public String toString () {
    return ("Book - Title: + title\n" +"Author: + author\n" + "Publisher: + publisher\n" + "Copyright: " + copyright);

    public class Bookshelf {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

    Book b1, b2, b3;

    b1 = new Book("Schizos Are Never Alone, ","Sigmund Freud, ","Brutal Books, ", 1901);
    b2 = new Book("Hitchhiker's guide to Mexico, ","Felipe Caldron, ","Leer Libros, ", 2009);
    b3 = new Book("Forget Keshawn, Throw ME the Damn Ball, ","Chad Johnson, ","Happy Times Press, ", 2011);

    System.out.println("b1: " + b1); //implicitly calls d1.toString()
    System.out.println("b2: " + b2.toString()); //explicitly calls d2.toString()
    System.out.println("b3: " + b3);


    Thanks,
    -C

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    Default Re: Using \n escape sequence in a toString method

    + title needs to be outside of the String quotations, only \n needs to be inside.
    Please use [highlight=Java]//code goes here...[/highlight] tags when posting your code

  5. The Following User Says Thank You to newbie For This Useful Post:

    coolidge (September 22nd, 2011)

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    Default Re: Using \n escape sequence in a toString method

    Thanks again newbie....I got it working great now.

    -C

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