Thread: Asking for user input in the main method?

I've created two classes, a TestDrive and the one I use to perform a single calculation, which is add or subtract 2 numbers. If I take away the userinput option, I can compile the files correctly, but I can't figure out why my JOptionPane input technique isn't working. Should I create a separate class for input? The instructions said to keep it in the TestDrive class, but does this make sense? I didn't think that that was the purpose of a testDrive class.


public class NumbersTestDrive
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{

//create the object
Numbers number1 = new Numbers();//reference variable for an object...Number1 is created from the Numbers class
//

number1.name = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter a name: ");

number1.grade = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter a grade: ");

enterednum1string = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter in a number:");
number1.enterednum1 = Double.parseDouble(enterednum1string);

enterednum2string = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter in another number:");
number1.enterednum2 = Double.parseDouble(enterednum2string);

operatorstring = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter 1 for subtraction\nEnter 2 for addition:");
number1.operator = Int.parseInteger(operatorstring);

//call the method
number1.addorsubtract(number1.enterednum1, number1.enterednum2, number1.operator);
double whatever = number1.addorsubtract(number1.enterednum1, number1.enterednum2, number1.operator);

JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Student's Name " + number1.name + "\nStudent's Grade" + number1.grade + "\nSolution " + whatever);
}


}


public class Numbers
{
String name;//create instance variable
String grade;//create instance variable
int operator;//create instance variable
double enterednum1;//create instance variable
double enterednum2;//create instance variable

public double addorsubtract(double x, double y, int z)//parameters - parameter list
{
if(z == 1)
{
double result = x - y;
return result;
}
else
{
double result = x + y;
return result;
}

}


}

What specific error are your getting? And when you post code, post it between a

  [ code] *code here* [ /code] (no space before the "/" or the "c")

to make it easier to read.

I took another look, and it was just basic syntax errors. It works, but am I right in saying that it's bad usage to have the testdrive class do anything more than "test" other classes?

A class can do whatever you want it to do. If that's what you want your TestDrive class to do, then so be it. When it comes to testing classes, I've come to learn that it works just as well to create a main method in the class itself, and test it in the same class, because then you can test your private methods along with the public ones. If testing in another class is what you want, then go for it. What you're doing here, creating a test class for every other class you make (did I get that right?) is sort of needless. It works just fine if you create a single class you can use for testing other classes. Something like this works great.

package testing;
 
// import JOptionPane, BigInteger, ArrayList, Scanner, Math, and any classes you are testing
 
public class testing {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
            long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
 
            /**
              *Code to test goes here
            **/
 
            long end = System.currentTimeMillis();
 
            System.out.println("Elapsed time: " + (end-start) + " ms."); //prints the amount of time the program takes to complete is milliseconds, useful for algorithm designing. 
      }
}

That is just a generic testing class that you can use to test most things.