Defining a veriable within if statements

Question

hi everyone,
I have a question:
if (true)
   int a = 0;
else if (true)
   String a = "hi";
else
    char a = 'u';
System.out.print(a);How come this doesn't work? It gives me 'undefined variable a' error. Is there another way to do what I am trying to do?
Any comments/suggestions/solutions?

Answer 1

OK guys...I seem to have another problem. What I am trying to do is not as simple as I described above.
I have three user-defined objects (classes). All three classes have some methods with same names that are defined inside the each class. Also they function identically.
To better explain this let me give you an example:
Let say there are three classes: Kid, Teen, Adult
They all have these methods: getName(), getAge(), setName(), setAge()
So code works as following:
loop through all the contents stored in a vector (vector contains some Kids, Teens and Adults)
Object a;
if (true) {
     a = new Kid();.
     a.setName(something);
     a.setAge(something);
else if (true) {
     a = new Teen();
     a.setName(something);
     a.setAge(something);
else {
     a = new Adult();
     a.setName(something);
     a.setAge(something);
String name = a.getName();
int age = a.getAge();
System.out.print(name + age);This doesn't work since those methods are not defined in class java.lang.Object.
Here what I am trying to avoid is following:
Object a;
if (true) {
     a = new Kid();
     a.setName(something);
     a.setAge(something);
String name = a.getName();
int age = a.getAge();
else if (true) {
     a = new Teen();
     a.setName(something);
     a.setAge(something);
String name = a.getName();
int age = a.getAge();
else {
     a = new Adult();
     a.setName(something);
     a.setAge(something);
String name = a.getName();
int age = a.getAge();
System.out.print(name + age);So is there any way to do this without being repetitive.