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Java Java Basics Getting Started with Java Strings and Variables

Posted by Melissa Tan
Melissa Tan
1,611 Points

Error - non-static method print cannot be referenced

Hi, I have been having a string of errors of this nature and I can't seem to move beyond this:

public static void main(String[] args) { Console console = System.console(); // Welcome to the Introductions program! Your code goes below here Console.printf("Hello, my name is Melissa"); Console.printf("Melissa is learning Java"); } }

CONSOLE treehouse:~/workspace$ javac Introductions.java
Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -Xmx128m
Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Xmx128m
Introductions.java:8: error: non-static method printf(String,Object...) cannot be referenced from a static context
Console.printf("Hello, my name is Melissa");
^
Introductions.java:9: error: non-static method printf(String,Object...) cannot be referenced from a static context
Console.printf("Melissa is learning Java");

May I know how do I solve the problem in this code?

Thank you.

Mike Papamichail
Mike Papamichail
4,883 Points
Mike Papamichail
Mike Papamichail
4,883 Points

Hey there, i believe the problem lies on the method that you're calling on console.

First of all, i think you should write console with a lower-case c since that's the way you have declared it :

Console console = System.console();

Second of all, the printf() method prints to the console a formatted string-that explains the f at the end of the method- So it's structure looks like this : 

console.printf(String , Object);

Explanation: String: A string goes here and you must use the %s symbol to print out another String(eg. this is used for printing out a String that is returned from a method)

Object: Here you place the String*that will be represented by the %s symbol inside your String.

*You can also have numbers instead of String passed in as objects but that's not the point here ;) -just throwing some extra info there-

Example: Let's assume we have a method named returnString() which returns the String "hey" :

public static String returnString() {
 return "hey";
}

We can use the String returned from this method when we call it-during runtime- and print it out to the console like this:

console.printf("%s Melissa" , returnString());

This will return to the console the following String:

hey Melissa

To sum up, if you just want to print out a string that's predefined, use the console.println() method.Otherwise,if you want to use a String that will be returned from a method but you don't know what it will be in the first place(let's say it's a user-inputed String) then you can use:

console.println("hey melissa");

Hope this helps! If you need help with this again, let me know and i will try my best to help you out :D !