First time using methods and constructors in JAVA, recieving errors in a program to determine raises

Question

I'm coding a fairly simple program that simply outputs 2 employee's Names, their salary, and a 10% raise to that salary. I have 2 issues: 1) The salary prints as '$0.000000' 2) Ii cannot get the raise method to work properly

Here's my code:

public class Employee {

    // instance variable
    private String name;
    private  String lastName;
    private  double salary;

    // setters
    public  String getLastName() { return lastName; }
    public  String getName() { return name; }
    public  double getSalary() { return salary; }

    public  void raise(double raise) { salary = salary + (salary * .1); }

    // getters
    public  Employee(String name, String lastName, double salary) {
        this.name = name;
        this.lastName = lastName;

        if (salary > 0.0) {
          this.salary = salary;
        }
    }
} 

public class EmployeeTest {

    public  static void main(String[] args) {

        Employee raise1 = new Employee("Betty", "Jones", 4000.0);
        Employee raise2 = new Employee("Sally", "Mae", 6000.0);

        // Print statements for the employee's name and salary
        System.out.printf("Employee #1\nFirst Name: %s\nLast Name: %s\n\n" + "Salary: $%f", raise1.getName(), raise1.getLastName(), raise1.getSalary());

        // THIS IS WHERE I'M HAVNG TROUBLE
        System.out.printf("Her raise will be: %d", raise1.raise(salary));

        System.out.printf("Employee #1\nFirst Name: %s\nLast Name: %s\n\n" + "Salary: %f", raise1.getName(), raise1.getLastName(), raise1.getSalary());

        raise2.raise(salary);
    }
}

Thanks in advance for the help!

Your "getters" and "setters" comments are rather...misleading. — supersam654, Feb 11 '14 at 03:12
Your `raise` method is of type `void`, meaning it won't return anything to your `System.out.printf` line. — Paul Richter, Feb 11 '14 at 03:13
`if (salary <0.0)` does not allow you to assign salary values. — PM 77-1, Feb 11 '14 at 03:16
1. As mentioned by PM77-1, you wrote the code to prevent salary being initialized. 2. What is the "proper" way your `raise` method should work? — Adrian Shum, Feb 11 '14 at 03:26
I just had the wrong logic when interpreting the question in the book I'm using. It said if the salary was less than 0 not to pass it in. I'm also wondering how I fix the print statement regarding the raise. I've edited my code above to show my changes — doobiz, Feb 11 '14 at 03:31

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 11 '14 at 03:38

The reason salary printed $0.00000 is because you've placed if statement for some reason instead of just setting salary you passed to constructor. Second thing, void methods does not return anything that's the reason raise method did not work the way you wanted. I fixed it for you so take a look, hopefully I helped you understand where you went wrong and if you have any questions feel free to ask I'm here for you.

Employee Test class:

public class EmployeeTest {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Employee raise1= new Employee("Betty","Jones",4000.0);
        Employee raise2= new Employee("Sally","Mae",6000.0);

        //Print statements for the employee's name and salary
        System.out.printf("Employee #1\nFirst Name: %s\nLast Name: %s\n\n" +
                "Salary: $%.2f",
                raise1.getName(),
                raise1.getLastName(),
                raise1.getSalary());

        System.out.printf("\nHer raise will be: $%.2f",
                raise1.raise(raise1.getSalary()));


        System.out.printf("\n\nEmployee #2\nFirst Name: %s\nLast Name: %s\n\n" +
                "Salary: $%.2f",
                raise2.getName(),
                raise2.getLastName(),
                raise2.getSalary());

        System.out.printf("\nHer raise will be: $%.2f\n",
                raise2.raise(raise2.getSalary()));

    }
}

Employee class:

public class Employee {

   //instance variable
   private String name;
   private String lastName;
   private double salary;

    //getters
    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }
    public double getSalary() {
        return salary;
    }

    public double raise(double raise){
        salary = salary + (salary*.1);
        return salary;
    }

    //constructor
    public Employee(String name, String lastName, double salary){

        this.name = name;
        this.lastName = lastName;
        this.salary = salary;

    }

}

Print output from the program above:

Employee #1

First Name: Betty

Last Name: Jones

Salary: $4000.00

Her raise will be: $4400.00

Employee #2

First Name: Sally

Last Name: Mae

Salary: $6000.00

Her raise will be: $6600.00

Thanks a lot man. This is my first time coding in Java and I'm not acquainted wth the syntax yet. — doobiz, Feb 11 '14 at 04:00

Arbiter · Answer 2 · 2014-02-11T03:26:21.633

0

Your raise() method's return type is void, which means that it will not return anything at all. Change the return type to double, and simply typing return this.salary at the end should work fine. It should look like this:

public double raise(double salary)
{
    this.salary = salary + (salary * 0.1); 
    return this.salary;
}

The this keyword references the instance of the object that you are using. Put it simply, you probably want to reference the classes salary variable, rather than the parameter passed in the method, otherwise it will reference the parameter passed in.

And you also need call this.salary = salary; in your constructor, because the only way it was assigned before is if salary is below zero, but 4000 is not below zero.

edited Feb 11 '14 at 03:26

answered Feb 11 '14 at 03:17

Arbiter

433
2
9

That is why I just edited it. I realised that error. – Arbiter Feb 11 '14 at 03:21
Still will not solve the problem. 110% of zero is still zero. – PM 77-1 Feb 11 '14 at 03:21
The method is fine as is. – PM 77-1 Feb 11 '14 at 03:26
Not in the context he uses it. He uses it in a `printf` statement, which requires the return type to be something other than void for it to actually show something. – Arbiter Feb 11 '14 at 03:29
`System.out.printf("Her raise will be: %d", raise1.raise(salary));` Look in his main() method. – Arbiter Feb 11 '14 at 03:31
One last question guys: In that printf statement. It says it cannot find symbol salary. – doobiz Feb 11 '14 at 03:42
That is because you haven't created it. Either create a local variable inside the main() method, or simply call `raise1.getSalary()` as the parameter for `raise()` – Arbiter Feb 11 '14 at 03:44

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 11 '14 at 03:19

0

When you do

Employee raise1= new Employee("Betty","Jones",4000.0);

you call the constructor of Employee class that have the following condition:

 if (salary <0.0){
     this.salary = salary;
 }

Since 4000.0 is more than 0, it never gets assigned.

answered Feb 11 '14 at 03:19

PM 77-1

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First time using methods and constructors in JAVA, recieving errors in a program to determine raises

3 Answers3