Thread: Incredibly new at java... trying to make area calculator

Hello,

Like the title says I'm very, very new at java. I started with finding the area of a triangle, but now I'm trying to ask a user what kind of shape they want the area for, then ask questions to get the area. I can't figure out how to take the shape a person types to go to a certain case. It also says shape hasn't been initialized. I don't know how to do that. I've tried googling, but I really can't figure it out. Thanks for the help in advance.

EDIT: Please ignore lack of calculations in cases... unless that's the problem

import java.util.Scanner;
public class TriangleArea {
 
	static Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
	public static void main(String[] args){
	char shape;
	String text = "Do you want to find the area of a triangle, square, rectangle, or trapezoid?";		
	System.out.print("Text");
	switch(shape){
	case '1':
		double base;
		double height;
		System.out.print("The base of the triangle is: ");
		base = sc.nextDouble();
		System.out.print("The height of the triangle is: ");
		height = sc.nextDouble();
		double Area1 = base * height;
		double Area2 = Area1 / 2;
		System.out.println("The area of the triangle is: " + Area2);
	case '2':
		double base1;
		double height1;
		System.out.print("The base of the square is: ");
		base1 = sc.nextDouble();
		System.out.print("The height of the square is: ");
		height1 = sc.nextDouble();
		double Area = base1 * height1;
		System.out.println("The area of the square is: ");
	case '3':
		double base2;
		double height2;
		System.out.print("The base of the rectangle is: ");
		base2 = sc.nextDouble();
		System.out.print("The height of the rectangle is:");
		height2 = sc.nextDouble();
		System.out.println("The area of the rectangle is:");
	case '4':
		double base3;
		double base4;
		double height3;
		System.out.print("One side of the trapezoid is: ");
		base3 = sc.nextDouble();
		System.out.print("Another side of the trapezoid is: ");
		base4 = sc.nextDouble();
		System.out.print("The height of the trapezoid is: ");
		height3 = sc.nextDouble();
		System.out.println("The area of the trapezois is: ");
	default :
		System.out.println("Invalid shape");
	}
 
	}
}