Can't print a string on the console

Question

I can't figure out why I'm getting errors in the console when I compile this simple program, which should just print a string (2 separate files):

/*WordCount.java*/
//for the map
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.TreeSet;
public class WordCount{ 
    private String stringToTest;
    //Map<String,Integer> mp = new HashMap<String, Integer>();//declaring a map object
    //constructor
    public WordCount(){
        stringToTest = "This is the string I want to test, and I'm curious to see the results.";
    }//end of constructor   
    public String getString(){
        return stringToTest;
    }
    System.out.printf("%s ", getString());  
}//end of WordCount class


/*WordCountTest.java
    WordCountTest to test the class
*/

public class WordCountTest{
    public static void main(String[] args){
        WordCount wordCount = new WordCount();      
    }
}//end of WordCountTest

These are the errors I get:

G:\JAVA\GUI\2015\createFrames\word_counter\test>javac *.java
WordCount.java:19: error: <identifier> expected
        System.out.printf("%s", getString());
                         ^
WordCount.java:19: error: illegal start of type
        System.out.printf("%s", getString());
                          ^
WordCount.java:19: error: <identifier> expected
        System.out.printf("%s", getString());
                                         ^
WordCount.java:19: error: ';' expected
        System.out.printf("%s", getString());
                                          ^
WordCount.java:19: error: illegal start of type
        System.out.printf("%s", getString());
                                           ^
WordCount.java:19: error: <identifier> expected
        System.out.printf("%s", getString());
                                            ^
WordCount.java:19: error: ';' expected
        System.out.printf("%s", getString());
                                             ^
WordCount.java:21: error: reached end of file while parsing
}//end of WordCount class
 ^
8 errors

I'm just creating an object, the constructor assign the string to the variable and I print out that variable. Still I can't quite understand why this isn't compiling Thanks

Answer 1

the line System.out.printf("%s", getString()); is causing an error because it is not in a method or constructor in your example. You can either put it in the constructor, if that is where you want it to be run:

public WordCount(){
    stringToTest = "This is the string I want to test, and I'm curious to see the results.";
    System.out.printf("%s", getString());
}

or in it's own method, eg:

public void printString() {
    System.out.printf("%s", getString());
}

Answer 2

I suspect it's because your print statement isn't contained within a method. Try something like the following

public class WordCount{ 
    private String stringToTest;
    //Map<String,Integer> mp = new HashMap<String, Integer>();//declaring a map object

    //constructor
    public WordCount(){
        stringToTest = "This is the string I want to test, and I'm curious to see the results.";
    }//end of constructor   

    public String getString(){
        return stringToTest;
    }

    public void printString() {
        System.out.printf("%s ", getString()); 
    } 
}//end of WordCount class

And then you can use it in the following way

public class WordCountTest{
    public static void main(String[] args){
         WordCount wordCount = new WordCount();     
         wordCount.printString(); 
    }
}//end of WordCountTest