Thread: Error message non-static method Person.getFirstName() cannot be referenced from a static context?

Hi, I have a super class Person and its sub class Student. Student has a toString method that prints out the details of the Student object including the first name. But I keep getting the error described in the title. Is there another way to fix this problem without making the method static?

Person super class

public class Person
{
    private String firstName, lastName, id;
 
    /**
     * Creates a Person object.
     * 
     * @param firstName the first name of the Person
     * @param lastName the last name of the Person
     * @param id the id number of the Person
     */
    public Person(String firstName, String lastName, String id) {
        this.firstName=firstName;
        this.lastName=lastName;
        this.id=id;
    }
 
    /**
	 * Returns the first name.
	 * 
	 * @return the firstName
	 */
	public String getFirstName() {
		return firstName;
	}
 
	/**
	 * Sets the first name.
	 * 
	 * @param firstName the firstName to set
	 */
	public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
		this.firstName = firstName;
	}
 
	/**
	 * Returns the last name.
	 * 
	 * @return the lastName
	 */
	public String getLastName() {
		return lastName;
	}
 
	/**
	 * Sets the last name.
	 * 
	 * @param lastName the lastName to set
	 */
	public void setLastName(String lastName) {
		this.lastName = lastName;
	}
 
	/**
	 * Returns the id.
	 * 
	 * @return the id
	 */
	public String getId() {
		return id;
	}
}

Student sub class:

 
import java.util.ArrayList;
 
 
public class Student extends Person {
 
	private double gpa;
	private ArrayList<CourseAttempted> transcript;
	private int creditsCompleted;
 
	/**
	 * Creates a student.
	 * 
	 * @param firstName the first name of the student
	 * @param lastName the last name of the student
	 * @param id the student's id
	 */
	public Student(String firstName, String lastName, String id) {
		super(firstName, lastName, id);
		gpa = 0.0;
		transcript = new ArrayList<CourseAttempted> ();
		creditsCompleted = 0;
		}
 
	/**
	 * @return the gpa
	 */
	public double getGpa() {
		return gpa;
	}
 
	/**
	 * Adds a course to the student's transcript.
	 * 
	 * @param courseToAdd the course to add
	 */
 
	public void addCourse(Course c, String semester, int year, double grade) {
	    CourseAttempted courseToAdd = new CourseAttempted(c, semester, year, grade);
	    transcript.add(courseToAdd);
 
		// the total number of credits attempted is the sum of
		// creditsCompleted and the number of credits of the course to be added
		// to the transcript
		int creditsAttempted = courseToAdd.course.getCredits() + creditsCompleted;
 
		// gpa is computed by doing the following:
		// for each course attempted, multiply the number of credits by the
		// course grade.  
		// gpa is the sum of the above for all the courses divided by the
		// number of total credits
		// 
		double currentPoints = gpa * creditsCompleted + courseToAdd.grade * 
		                        courseToAdd.course.getCredits();
 
		gpa = currentPoints / creditsAttempted;
 
		if (courseToAdd.grade > 0) 
		   creditsCompleted += courseToAdd.course.getCredits();
	}
 
	/**
    * Returns the list of courses as a String.
    * 
    * @return the list of courses the student has taken
    */
    public String getTranscript() {
        String courseList = "";
 
        for (CourseAttempted ca: transcript) 
            courseList = courseList + ca + "\n";
 
        return courseList;
    }
 
	/**
	 * Returns a String representation of a Student
	 * 
	 * @return a string representing the student
	 */
	public String toString() {
		String s = this.getClass().getName().toUpperCase() + ":\t" + Person.getFirstName() + " " + lastName 
				+ "\tID = " + id + "\tGPA = " + gpa + "\tCredits Completed = " + creditsCompleted;
		s += "\nHere are all the courses the student has taken so far";
		s += "\n-----------------------------------------------------";
		s += "\n" + getTranscript();
        return s;
    }	
}

I'm talking about changing the getFirstName() method to static not the toString() method. I cant call the toString() because I can't even compile the student class.

So are you saying I should create a person object within my Person class to be able to call methods from that class?
Like:

Person p = new Person("Joe", "Smith", "0394857");

To call p.getFirstName();?

I got it. Thank you so much! This was my last programming assignment of the semester. So glad it's over!