Re: Global enums and constants

From:
Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.help
Date:
Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:38:51 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID:
<10392490.302.1329327531503.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@pbcwl10>
On Wednesday, February 15, 2012 8:31:49 AM UTC-8, Daniel Pitts wrote:

On 2/14/12 3:10 PM, Davej wrote:

On Feb 14, 4:53 pm, Daniel Pitts
<newsgroup.nos...@virtualinfinity.net> wrote:

On 2/14/12 2:37 PM, Davej wrote:

I'm having trouble accessing constants. I know it is always best to
define a constant in only one place, but public or private I still
can't see it. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.


The problem is on line 15 of the example you posted.

In other words, we don't know what you've tried, what error messages y=

ou

see, or what you are really attempting to do. Please provide an SSCCE
<http://sscce.org/> and then we'll be able to help without the use of
clairvoyance.


Well, I had a constant CLASSFILEPATH defined here...
     public final String CLASSFILEPATH = "/WEB-INF/ClassList.txt";

That is not exactly a constant. It is an instance field. You're missing=

 

the static modifier.


Being 'static' is not part of the definition of a Java constant variable.
"We call a variable, of primitive type or type String, that is final and
initialized with a compile-time constant expression (=A715.28) a constant=
 
variable."
<http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/typesValues.html#4.1=
2.4>

So that is exactly a constant (variable).

The problem is that not being a static variable, the OP must reference it=
 
through an instance reference, which he did not do.

This should do the trick:
    public static final String CLASSFILEPATH = "/WEB-INF/ClassList.txt"=

;

 
When you add "static", it means there is exactly one CLASSFILEPATH per
Student "class". Without the static it is per Student instance.


So the OP has two choices - reference the constant variable through an
instance, if he keeps it an instance variable, or through the class, if he=
 
changes it to a static variable.

  ___________________________________________________

Now note that the first file has an import for the second file. Still
the
constant cannot be seen inside the servlets package. The error is;

error: cannot find symbol
   String path = sc.getRealPath(CLASSFILEPATH);
   symbol: variable CLASSFILEPATH
   location: class CalculateGradesServlet
1 error


Now take Patricia's advice.

--
Lew

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