String int variable clarification

Question

I have received the following error message

G:\CIS260\Assignments>javac PhoneNumber.java
PhoneNumber.java:45: error: incompatible types
        number = decode(c);
                       ^
  required: int
  found:    String
1 error

in the beginning of the class i have

char c;
private int number = 0

This makes it an int so i understand that in order for the next line to compile i have to have two of the same data types. My understanding is that

str[1].valueOf(number);

number = decode(c);
public static String decode(char c){

 switch (c) {

should make the variable NUMBER a string making decode and number equal data types because they are both strings.

I feel like i may be forgetting a step in order to make both strings data types. any thoughts?

Answer 1

char c = 0; //is not declared and initalized

number = Integer.parseInt(decode(c));

Answer 2

yes you are declaring number as Integer.

so you should cast it by using Integer.ParseInt.

Answer 3

You have the method public static String decode(char c) which returns a value of String, but the variable number accepts the value String which is declared as an Integer

Try having a return type of Integer like public static int decode(char c)

Answer 4

Your method returns a String.

You are trying to store that returned string in an int.

Java does not convert strings to integers automatically like this. You will have to do the conversion explicitly. You can use Integer.parseInt for this:

int number = Integer.parseInt(decode(c));

Note that a NumberFormatException will be thrown if the returned string isn't actually a valid integer.