Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Java

Classified Classified
Classified Classified
767 Points
Posted by Classified Classified
Classified Classified
767 Points

What is an illegal start of type?

      String noun;
      do {
        noun = console.readLine("Enter a noun:  ");
        boolean isInvalidWord = (noun.equalsIgnoreCase("dork") || 
                                 noun.equalsIgnoreCase("jerk") ||
                                 noun.equalsIgnoreCase("wolf")); 
      if (isInvalidWord) {
       console.printf("That language is not allowed. Try again. \n\n"); 
       }
      } while(isInvalidWord);


Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Xmx128m                                                                                                                                                                  
Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Xmx128m                                                                                                                                                                      
TreeStory.java:36: error: cannot find symbol                                                                                                                                                           
      } while(isInvalidWord);                                                                                                                                                                          
              ^                                                                                                                                                                                        
  symbol:   variable isInvalidWord                                                                                                                                                                     
  location: class TreeStory                                                                                                                                                                            
TreeStory.java:36: error: illegal start of type                                                                                                                                                        
      } while(isInvalidWord);                                                                                                                                                                          
             ^                                                                                                                                                                                         
2 errors

1 Answer

andren
andren
28,558 Points
andren
andren
28,558 Points

The problem with your code is that the isInvalidWord variable is declared within the do/while loop. Due to the way variable scoping works a variable declared within a loop is not accessible outside of the loop, and the while statement is considered to be outside the scope of the loop.

Therefore when you reference isInvalidWord as the condition of your loop Java doesn't know what it is. If you move the declaration outside the loop like this:

String noun;
boolean isInvalidWord; // Declare isInvalidWord
do {
    noun = console.readLine("Enter a noun:  ");
    isInvalidWord = (noun.equalsIgnoreCase("dork") || // Changed from declaration to simply assigning a value
                     noun.equalsIgnoreCase("jerk") ||
                     noun.equalsIgnoreCase("wolf")); 
    if (isInvalidWord) {
        console.printf("That language is not allowed. Try again. \n\n"); 
    }
} while(isInvalidWord);

Then your code should work fine.