cannot assign a value to final variable mBarCount

Question

cannot assign a value to final variable mBarCount
```GoKart.java
public class GoKart {
  private String mColor;
  public static final int mBarCount = 8;
  public GoKart(String color) {
    mColor = color;
    mBarCount = 0;
  }
  public String getColor() {
    return mColor;
  } 
}
```

Aaron Graham · Answer

The keyword 'final' makes mBarCount a constant. Not being able to assign a value to it is exactly what it should do.
Edit: To give a little more explanation, if mBarCount is meant to be a constant number in your code (given your code, I don't think that is the case), leave 'final' in there, and to follow good coding practices, change the name to something like MBARCOUNT, since it is a constant. Also, you need to remove the reassignment of mBarCount to '0'. You can't reassign a constant. The compiler will catch it every time.
The way I think your code should work (if I remember this code challenge correctly), is that you should have a constant defined that stores the maximum number of bars and a member variable that stores the current number of bars;
```java
public static final int MAX_BARS = 8;
public static int mBarCount;
```
mBarCount just stores the current number of bars. Then, when the kart is recharged, you can simply do:
```java
mBarCount = MAX_BARS;
```
Using constants is to prevent you from accidentally doing something like:
```java
MAX_BARS = mBarCount;
```
With MAX_BARS defined as 'final', the compiler will catch it. If it weren't defined with 'final' you would have just built a bug.
Hope that helps.

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Jennifer Kartchner

Jennifer Kartchner

cannot assign a value to final variable mBarCount

1 Answer

Aaron Graham

Aaron Graham