Thread: Simple question- nonstatic variable?

It goes away if you make the class Tutorial2 static. Why the entire class has to be static, I'm not totally sure myself.

Copy and paste the full and exact message.

--- Update ---

Originally Posted by GoodbyeWorld

Make message(int number) be a static method and the issue will go away.

Bad advice!

They have created a Tutorial2 object and have called the method non-statically which is the correct way to go.

No it is not the EXACT message. java provides very informative error messages that usually extend over several lines, of which provides the line of code where the error occur.

If you are just hovering your mouse over the code in an IDE then try compiling the code and get the full message.

Originally Posted by Junky

Copy and paste the full and exact message.

--- Update ---


Bad advice!

They have created a Tutorial2 object and have called the method non-statically which is the correct way to go.

Yes, at first I didn't see that it was part of a separate class and thought it was just another method of the same class.

It compiles if you do this:

import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class Prog
{
   public static void main (String[] args)
   {
      Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
      System.out.println("Enter num");
      int num = scan.nextInt();
 
      Tutorial2 info = new Tutorial2();
      info.message(num);
   }
 
 
   public static class Tutorial2
   {
      public  void message(int number)
      {
 
         System.out.printf("The number you entered was %d", number);
 
 
      }
 
 
 
   }
 
}

From what I just read on the exact reason for the error, apparently you can call an "upper class" method in the "lower class" but if you try and call a "lower class" method in the "upper class", then the "lower class" must be static.

Static nested class in Java, why? - Stack Overflow

The best solution would be to NOT have Tutorial2 as an inner class. Move it out to its own file.

BTW that is still not the full error message. It is some sanitised version the IDE throws at you. As I said above you should compile your code to get the full message.

Really?

Other IDE's (Eclipse and Netbeans) usually display the full error messages in a separate pane called Console.

I disagree with the tutorial you were looking at (if this is indeed what they told you to do). The Prog class contains the main method, but you have to remember that the Prog class itself is an object class, so it can contain a constructor and Prog objects can be created. Knowing this allows you avoid all the static garbage from the main method (the static keyword has its purposes, but not for what you are attempting to do).
You can make Tutorial2 non-static if you reference it from inside a non-static method. But, how can you use that method in the main without making the method static? Easy: use the Prog constructor instead and just create a new Prog() object in your main:

import java.util.Scanner;
 
public class Prog {
 
    public Prog() {
        Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
        System.out.println("Enter num");
        int num = scan.nextInt();
 
        Tutorial2 info = new Tutorial2();
        info.message(num);
    }
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Prog();
    }
 
    public class Tutorial2 {
        public void message(int number) {
            System.out.printf("The number you entered was %d", number);
        }
    }
}