Problems when instantiating and initializing objects

Question

I've been coding one of my final school projects related to a text file based on weddings. I am trying to code a method that will return a wedding object,

(NOTE: weeding object consists of a brideName, groomName, weddingDate, Venue, number of Guests).

In a normal method using Strings. For example, I would merely type

String temp = "";

run a loop to loop through my array. if statement

temp = temp + arr[loop].toString();

return temp;

But now dealing with a wedding object when I declare it:

Wedding temp; - (As i cant initialize it as there is no brideName etc.)
run loop
if statement
temp = temp + array[loop];

return temp;

Here is where i get the error of temp may not have been initialized.

Could anyone help with a suggestion of how to fix this? Thank you so much Here is what the actual method looks like

 public Wedding getWeddingsOnDay(String date, String venue)
{
    Wedding temp;
    for (int loop = 0; loop < counter; loop++)
    {
        if (wedArr[loop].getWeddingDate().equals(date) && wedArr[loop].getVenue().equals(venue))
            temp = wedArr[loop];
        else
            temp = null;
    }
    return temp;
}

Assign your reference `temp` to an object before using it. – Nicholas K Oct 13 '18 at 10:22 — Nicholas K, Oct 13 '18 at 10:22

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 13 '18 at 10:38

Rewrite the method this way.

public Wedding getWeddingAt(String date, String venue) {
    for (Wedding w : wedArr)
    {
        if (w.getWeddingDate().equals(date) &&
                w.getVenue().equals(venue)) {
            return w;
        }
    }
    return null;
}

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 13 '18 at 11:48

Your code will say this obviously beacise it is possible that you code will not go into the if block and temp varialble remain unintilized . So , anyone using it need to check null value before using this temp variable .

There are several ways you can remove this error :

Ignore this error. As this error will not stop running your code .

you can use optional intead of returing null , after this your method will lokks like below method :

public Optional<Wedding> getWeddingsOnDay(String date, String venue){

  Optional<Wedding> temp;
  for (int loop = 0; loop < counter; loop++) {
      if (wedArr[loop].getWeddingDate().equals(date) && wedArr[loop].getVenue().equals(venue)) { 
          temp = Optional.of(wedArr[loop]);}
 else{
          temp = Optional.empty(); 
  }
}
  return temp;    
}

You need not to use temp at all just return wedArr[loop] or null

Problems when instantiating and initializing objects

2 Answers2