Uninitialized variable that has been initialized

Question

Would anyone know why I am getting the error Variable 'tree' might not have been initialized

my method

public static TreeNode randomBST(TreeNode[] nodeArr) {
        TreeNode root = nodeArr[0];
        TreeNode tree;
        for (int i = 1; i < nodeArr.length; i++) {
            tree = buildBST(root, nodeArr[i]);
        }
        return tree;
    }

my buildBST method returns a TreeNode object.

I can fix this error by by assigning tree = null. How come I have to do this but if I were to initialize an int I dont have to? Is it because int is able to allocate a known amount of memory, where as the tree object is unknown amount of memory allocated?

Please show an example where it would work with `tree` being an `int`. — Sotirios Delimanolis, Jul 25 '14 at 05:17

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 25 '14 at 05:18

1

There's no guarantee to the compiler that the loop is ever entered. Thus the variable may not be initialized.

answered Jul 25 '14 at 05:18

Chris Hayes

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Uninitialized variable that has been initialized

1 Answers1