I’m just starting to learn Java and I just got to the if-else-else if statements section on CodeAcademy. I tried using the if else statement in a method, but I’m not receiving the variable value when I call it, only the if-else statement. I’m guessing this is a very small mistake.

(This is my first post so if I’m using any of the features incorrectly, let me know)

Thank you!

public class Dog{
  String name;
  double weight;
  int age;

  public Dog(String dogName, double dogWeight, int dogAge){
    String name = dogName;
    double weight = dogWeight;
    int age = dogAge;

    if (dogAge == 10){
      System.out.println("He's getting a bit older!");
    } else if (dogAge < 10) {
      System.out.println("He is still young!");
    } else if (dogAge > 10){
      System.out.println("Make sure he is healthy!");
    }

  }

  public static void main(String[] args){
    Dog coco = new Dog("CoCo", 15.67, 11);
    System.out.println(coco.age);



  }
}

The output I get from this is:

Make sure he is healthy!
0

>Solution :

In your constructor, you’re declaring new variables local to the method that happen to have the same name as your object’s properties.

  public Dog(String dogName, double dogWeight, int dogAge){
    String name = dogName;
    double weight = dogWeight;
    int age = dogAge;

To overwrite your object’s properties, you can remove the type declaration in order to refer to an existing variable.

  public Dog(String dogName, double dogWeight, int dogAge){
    name = dogName;
    weight = dogWeight;
    age = dogAge;

You can also utilize the this object, which disambiguates between the object’s properties and similarly named variables. It helps with readability as well.

  public Dog(String dogName, double dogWeight, int dogAge){
    this.name = dogName;
    this.weight = dogWeight;
    this.age = dogAge;