How to avoid 'the local variable may not have been initialized'?

Question

/*This is a program that calculates Internet advertising rates based on what features/options you choose.
 * 
 *  
 */

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Inter         


        

Answer 1

Eclipse is warning you because your initializations are happening inside conditionals. If none of the conditions are satisfied, textCost will be uninitialized.

if (numberOfWords <= 25)
    {
            //assign a value to textCost
    }
    else if (numberOfWords <= 35)
    {
            //assign a value to textCost
    }
    else if (numberOfWords > 35)
    {
            //assign a value to textCost
    }

Eclipse probably isn't recognizing that (numberOfWords <= 35) and (numberOfWords > 35) cover all possibilities.

You could either initialize it to 0 on declaration, or include an additional else {} which sets it to zero.

Similar explanation for the other variable.