non static variable name cannot be referenced from a static context [duplicate]

Question

class Singer
{
 String name;
 String album;

 public Singer(){
  name="Whitney Houson";
  album="Latest Releases";
 }

 public static void main(String[] args) 
 {
  System.out.println("Name of the singer is "+name);
  System.out.println("Album Information stored for "+album);

 }
}

When i run this code i am finding error which says that non static variable name cannot be referenced from a static context

Answer 1

That's because the variables name and album do not exist in the main procedure, because it's static, which means it cannot access instance-level members. You will need an instance of the Singer class, like this:

public static void main(String[] args) {
 Singer s = new Singer();
 System.out.println("Name of the singer is " + s.name);
 System.out.println("Album information stored for " + s.album);
}

However, unless you declare your name/album members with a public access modifier, the above code will fail to compile. I recommended writing a getter for each member (getName(), getAlbum(), etc), in order to benefit from encapsulation. Like this:

class Singer {
 private String name;
 private String album;

 public Singer() {
    this.name = "Whitney Houston";
    this.album = "Latest Releases";
 }

 public String getName() {
     return this.name;
 }

 public String getAlbum() {
     return this.album;
 }

 public static void main(String[] args) {
     Singer s = new Singer();
     System.out.println("Name of the singer is " + s.getName());
     System.out.println("Album information stored for " + s.getAlbum());

 }

}

Another alternative would be to declare name and album as static, then you can reference them in the way you originally intended.