Thread: Simple if-else not working for me.

Hi all. Me again. I hope everyone is doing OK. I have a simple enough little program here, that according to my n00b mind, should be working just fine. 'Cept I keep getting this error message: "java:21: error: variable hasInsurance might not have been initialized" and I don't really know why. If anyone cares to chime in, I'd be grateful.

import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
 
public class MyMedicalProgram2
{
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		String isPatient;
		String hasInsurance;
		String isCurrent;
 
		isPatient = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Are you a current patient? Enter Yes or No.");
 
		if (isPatient != "Yes")
			{
				JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Please fill out our new-patient forms. All of them.");
			}
		else
			{
				hasInsurance = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Do you have insurance? Enter Yes or No");
			}
		if (hasInsurance != "Yes")
			{
				JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Well then we're going to need the money up front.");
			}
		else
			{
				isCurrent = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Is your information current? Enter Yes or No.");
			}
		if (isCurrent != "Yes")
			{
				JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Please fill out these forms. All of them.");
			}
		else
			{
				JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Please have a seat and we will be with you in our own good time.");
			}
 
	}
 
}

Thanks Zyrion. You're pretty quick to respond. So, ok, I went back and initialized the variables. Bear in mind, I'm still in n00b-think, so when I got that error message, I thought it was mistaken because the variables are strings. It still doesn't make complete sense to me, the whole 'why' of it, but I've come to see that it's just something that has to be done. I know that if a variable is not initialized, it still has an arbitrary value of sorts, so I guess it doesn't hurt to assign it a precise value to start with. Is that the whole 'why' of it? I've sort of retooled the code, has only one slight issue remaining. It iterates beyond what it is supposed to do when a "no' answer is entered.. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
 
public class MyMedicalProgram2
{
	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		String isPatient = "I'm";
		String hasInsurance = "not";
		String isCurrent = "happy";		
		isPatient = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Are you a current patient? Enter Yes or No.");
 
		if (!isPatient.equalsIgnoreCase("Yes"))
			{
				JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Please fill out our new-patient forms. All of them.");
			}
		else
			{
				hasInsurance = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Do you have insurance? Enter Yes or No");
			}
		if (!hasInsurance.equalsIgnoreCase("Yes"))
			{
				JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Well then we're going to need the money up front.");
			}
		else
			{
				isCurrent = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Is your information current? Enter Yes or No.");
			}
		if (!isCurrent.equalsIgnoreCase("Yes"))
			{
				JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Please fill out these forms. All of them.");
			}
		else
			{
				JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "Please have a seat and we will be with you in our own good time.");
			}
 
	}
 
}

--- Update ---

Nevermind. Nothing a little 'System.exit(0)' couldn't fix. Don't know if it's 'pretty' or conventional, but it works.

How do I close this out as 'Solved'?