Error: cannot find symbol

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I'm working on a small program but I keep getting this error.

<pre> symbol:   method price()
  location: variable courses of type ArrayList<Course>
UnitTest.java:13: error: cannot find symbol
    System.out.println("Credit Hours: " + c1.getCreditHours());

The error is specifically pointing to the period after c1, which i'm really confused about.

I have four of the "c's" (c1, c2, etc)

Course c1=new Course("CMB-343", "Advanced Swordsmanship","2");
  System.out.println("1.");
  System.out.println("Course Id: " + c1.getCourseId());
  System.out.println("Course Name:" + c1.getCourseName());
  System.out.println("Credit Hours: " + c1.getCreditHours());

I only get the "cannot find symbol" on the first one.

here is some more code that might be related to the error.

public Course(String argCourseId, String argCourseName, String argCreditHours){
		courseId=argCourseId;
		courseName=argCourseName;
    creditHours=argCreditHours;
	}

	public Course(String argCourseId, String argCourseName){
			courseId=argCourseId;
			courseName=argCourseName;
	    creditHours="1";
		}

What I have tried:

looking for a way to fix it by looking up similar questions.

Posted 5-Mar-20 13:57pm

Member 14637431

Updated 5-Mar-20 21:44pm

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Stefan_Lang · Answer 1 · 2020-03-05T21:45:00

Quote:
error: cannot find symbol

The error message says it all: your code contains a symbol that hasn't been declared. A symbol can be the name of a variable, class or function.

Quote:
The error is specifically pointing to the period after c1

Since you have used c1 before, this doesn't seem to be the culprit. So look what's beyond that period: getCreditHours() . Maybe that function doesn't exist, or it goes by a different name (e. g. getCourseHours()?), or you've made a typo when defining that function. Check the definition of the Course class and see if it has the function getCreditHours. Make sure it's exactly spelled like that.

On a sidenote: why do you prefix everything in the Course class by 'course'? That's a needless duplication. Except when you don't: e. g. 'creditHours'. That's needlessly inconsistent and confusing - and it might be the source of your error.

P.S.: I have some doubts about the field creditHours: if it is what is implied by it's name, it sholdn't be a member of the Course class to start with! It is a property of the relation of students to the courses they participate in, not a property of the course, nor is it a property of the student. That might be the reason why your naming scheme broke: when deciding on the name, you actually realized it's not about the course!