Cannot make a static reference to the non-static method getNumThingsCaught() from the type Fisher

Question

public class Fisher { 
 public static int LIMIT = 10; // max # of fish that can be caught 
 private int numThingsCaught = 0;


 public int getNumThingsCaught() { return numThingsCaught; } 

}

This is my second class

public class Fish { 
 public boolean isDesirableTo(Fisher f) { 
  if (Fisher.getNumThingsCaught() < Fisher.LIMIT)
  return true;
  return false; 
 }
}

I am using eclipse and Fisher.getNumThingsCaught() is underlined, when i hover over to see the error the message says: "Cannot make a static reference to the non-static method getNumThingsCaught() from the type Fisher" How can I change my code in my !//Fish//! class to make this code work?

Side note: generally `if (condition) return true; else return false;` can be written as `return condition;`. — Pshemo, Feb 12 '14 at 19:26
Before you posted this, did you search for other questions about static references and non-static methods? There may have been an answer there just waiting for you to discover it! — Dawood ibn Kareem, Feb 12 '14 at 19:43

Arbiter · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-12T19:30:34.813

You can either change Fisher.getNumThingsCaught() to f.getNumThingsCaught() because f is a reference to a Fisher object, or you can make that method static (which is not what you want)

So it will look like:

if (f.getNumThingsCaught() < Fisher.LIMIT)
     return true;
return false;

Also another programming tip. When you define a static variable straight away, consider making it final as well. Because I assume you do not want the LIMIT variable to change.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 12 '14 at 19:26

0

In this piece of code: Fisher.getNumThingsCaught() Fisher is the name of the class, not reference to the object. Since getNumThingsCaught method is not static, you need to call it on object instance.

Solution: just change it to f.getNumThingsCaught()

answered Feb 12 '14 at 19:26

dimoniy

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 12 '14 at 21:57

In the Fish class, you need a reference to a Fisher instance. You can do this by:

public class Fish { 
 Fisher fisher = null;
 public boolean isDesirableTo(Fisher f) 
 { 
    fisher = new Fisher();
  if (fisher.getNumThingsCaught() < Fisher.LIMIT)
  {
     return true;
  }
     return false; 
  }
 }

if (f.getNumThingsCaught() < Fisher.LIMIT)
     return true;
return false;

Add the final modifier to 'LIMIT' to ensure it cannot be overwritten.

Cannot make a static reference to the non-static method getNumThingsCaught() from the type Fisher

3 Answers3