Variable might not have been initialized error in Java

Question

import java.util.Random;

public class dice
{
  private int times;
  private int roll;
  private int side;
  Random roller = new Random();   

  public void setTimes(int sides)
  {
    times = sides;
  }

  public void setSides(int die)
  {
    side = die;
  }

  public int getRoll()
  { 
    int total; //here it is
    int c = 0;
    while (c <= times)
    {
      c = c + 1;
      int rol = 0;
      roll = roller.nextInt(side) + 1;
      rol = rol + roll;
      total = rol; //here it is initialized
    }
    return total; //here it says variable not initialized
  }
}

Answer 1

The inside of a while loop isn't guaranteed to execute - for example, if times is less than zero from a programming mistake. The compiler knows this, so it won't count on the while loop when figuring out whether total was initialized.