Java - Variable Scope

Question

I\'m brand new to java and I have a super n00bish question. (I do have some general programming knowledge). I\'m trying to access the variable \"item\" to no avail. Can some

Answer 1

Variable scope only extends to the smallest pair of braces that surround the declaration. For instance:

//this could be a method body, an if statement, a loop, whatever
{
    int x;
} //x passes out of scope here

Therefore, when you declare item inside of a do-while loop, its scope ends once you exit the loop. To fix this, declare item above the loop like this:

String item = null; //initialize to null to avoid warning about using an un-initialized variable

do {
    System.out.println("Enter item number: ");
    item = input.next();

    //rest of loop...

} while (exit == 0);

This way item will be available until the method returns.