Illegal combination of modifiers: public and private

Question

I am having an issue with the following code...

/**
 * This class holds all of the information pertaining to 
 * a person's name.
 */
public class Name {

    private String first, middle, last, maiden, initials, prefix, suffix;
    private char middleInitial, firstInitial, lastInitial;
    private

    /**
     * Constructor for a Name given first, middle, and last names.
    */
    public Name(String first, String middle, String last) {

        this.first = first;
        this.middle = middle;
        this.last = last;
        this.middleInitial = middle.charAt(0);
        this.firstInitial = first.charAt(0);
        this.lastInitial = last.charAt(0);
        this.initials = String.valueOf(firstInitial + middleInitial 
            + lastInitial);
        this.maiden = null;
        this.prefix = null;
        this.suffix = null;

    }

There is more but my error is coming in my primary constructor. It is giving me the error that I have entered in the title. As you can see, both my class and constructor are both public. This shouldn't cause any issues but seems to be doing so.

Answer 1

You have an "orphan" private modifier before the constructor's comment:

private // Here!

/**
 * Constructor for a Name given first, middle, and last names.
 */
public Name(String first, String middle, String last) {

Just remove it, and you should be fine.

Answer 2

There is a stray private on the third line inside the class. Since statements last until a curly brace or semicolon is encountered, the compiler thinks that this is a part of the same statement as your constructor declaration - it sees private public Name(String first, String middle, String last) .

Answer 3

After declaring all your variables, you have written the keyword private .

private String first, middle, last, maiden, initials, prefix, suffix;
private char middleInitial, firstInitial, lastInitial;
private  // Here.  

Java is a freely-typed language. A line ends with a ; (semi colon) and not a newline. So

private  

public Name(String first, String middle, String last) {
    // ...
}  

is considered to be one single line as:

private public Name(String first, String middle, String last) {  
  // ...
}  

As you can see, your constructor has two modifiers, public and private . Which is illegal in Java.

Solution

1. Remove the keyword public if you want to keep the constructor private and want other classes to instantiate it. 希望其他类实例化它，请删除关键字public 。

OR

2. Remove the keyword private if you want to allow other classes to instantiate it.