Why am I getting a "Use of unassigned local variable" error?

Question

The variable area in line 18 keeps giving me the "Use of unassigned variable" error. I've tried putting area = length*width in the int line but that hasn't worked either it just makes length and width unassigned. :/ This is probably me just being really bad but help

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Room
{
class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string AreaString;
        int length;
        int width;
        int area;
        double persquarefoot = 3.25;
        double priceofcarpet = area * persquarefoot;
        Console.Write("Enter the length of the room: ");
        AreaString = Console.ReadLine();
        length = Convert.ToInt32(AreaString);
        Console.Write("Enter the width of the room: ");
        AreaString = Console.ReadLine();
        width = Convert.ToInt32(AreaString);
        area = length * width;
        Console.Write("The floor space is");
        Console.Write(area);
        Console.WriteLine(" square feet.");
        Console.Write("The cost of carpet in the room is $");
        Console.Write(persquarefoot);
        Console.WriteLine(" per square foot.");
        Console.Write("The cost of carpeting the whole room would be $");
        Console.Write(priceofcarpet);
        Console.WriteLine(".");
        Console.ReadKey();
    }
}
}

Even if that were allowed, the `priceofcarpet` would always be zero so it doesn't make sense to use the default value of an int in a multiplication expression. — Crowcoder, Oct 03 '18 at 12:03
What would you expect `double priceofcarpet = area * persquarefoot;` to return when you never said what `area`? Compiler won´t make any guesses on what may be a good default-value for `area`. — MakePeaceGreatAgain, Oct 03 '18 at 12:04
You can't use area without first giving it a value, but that will be difficult for you because you are trying to use area before you even asked what the length and width are. — takendarkk, Oct 03 '18 at 12:04

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 03 '18 at 13:40

1

You should move below snippet

double priceofcarpet = area * persquarefoot;

after calculating area

area = length * width;

edited Oct 03 '18 at 13:40

Abhijit

374
3
15

answered Oct 03 '18 at 12:05

Milad Aghamohammadi

1,866
1
16
29

Why am I getting a "Use of unassigned local variable" error?

1 Answers1