How to get the variable value to pass to other methods.

[Susan Clark]

I am new to java but not new to programming.
I can get everything in my programs to work except for passing the variable. And unless I can resolve this I cannot get any of my programs to run.

I cannot get the value of my variable menuChoice to pass to other methods.

***********************************************************
NewAttempt.java
***********************************************************
public class NewAttempt
 {
    public static menu chooseMenu = new menu();
	public static worker doWork = new worker();
	public static char menuChoice;

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
    	menu.menu(menuChoice);
    	System.out.println ("main  " + menuChoice);
    	worker.worker(menuChoice);
    }
}

***********************************************************
menu.java
***********************************************************
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;



public class menu
{

	public static char menu(char menuChoice)
	{
		String menuChoiceString;
		menuChoiceString = JOptionPane.showInputDialog
		("MENU\n"+
	 	"Choose the letter corresponding to the type of file needed:\n"+
			"A  - \"A\" students\n" +
			"B  - \"B\" students\n" +
			"C  - \"C\" students\n" +
			"D  - \"D\" students\n" +
			"F  - \"F\" students\n" +
			"G  - \"Female\" students\n" +
			"M  - \"Male\" students\n" +
			"I  - \"Improving\" students\n" +
			"L  - a list of \"All\" the students\n" +
			"T  - students from a particular town\n" +
			"X  - Exit the menu.\n");
		menuChoice = menuChoiceString.charAt(0);
		System.out.println ("menu  " + menuChoice);
		return menuChoice;
	}

}

***********************************************************
worker.java
***********************************************************
public class worker
{


	public static void worker(char menuChoice)
	{
	System.out.println ("worker  " + menuChoice);
	}
}
***********************************************************

RESULTS

menu A
main
worker

[Nepomuk]

In Java, you pass variables by value, not by reference. So, change your code to something like this:

***********************************************************
   NewAttempt.java

***********************************************************
   public class NewAttempt
   {
   [b]public static menu chooseMenu = new menu(); // as you're using a static class menu(), you don't need an object here.
   public static worker doWork = new worker(); // same here[/b]
   public static char menuChoice;

   public static void main(String[] args)
   {
      [b]menuChoice = menu.menu();[/b]
      System.out.println ("main  " + menuChoice);
      worker.worker(menuChoice);
   }
}

***********************************************************
menu.java
***********************************************************
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
 
 
 
public class menu
{
 
    [b]public static char menu()[/b]
    {
        String menuChoiceString;
        menuChoiceString = JOptionPane.showInputDialog
        ("MENU\n"+
         "Choose the letter corresponding to the type of file needed:\n"+
            "A  - \"A\" students\n" +
            "B  - \"B\" students\n" +
            "C  - \"C\" students\n" +
            "D  - \"D\" students\n" +
            "F  - \"F\" students\n" +
            "G  - \"Female\" students\n" +
            "M  - \"Male\" students\n" +
            "I  - \"Improving\" students\n" +
            "L  - a list of \"All\" the students\n" +
            "T  - students from a particular town\n" +
            "X  - Exit the menu.\n");
        [b]char menuChoice = menuChoiceString.charAt(0);[/b]
        System.out.println ("menu  " + menuChoice);
        return menuChoice;
    }
}

Also, it is rather unusual to use so many static objects. You may want to consider something like this:

***********************************************************
worker.java
***********************************************************
public class worker
{
    public worker() // this is the constructor
    { }

    public void printWorker(char menuChoice)
    {
    System.out.println ("worker  " + menuChoice);
    }
}
***********************************************************

Greetings,
Nepomuk