Help with method for reading coeffecients.

Question

I am fairly new to Java programming and I was asked by my instructor to wright a program that calculates the quadratic formula via a loop. So far i have the following code:
   // Constructor obtains the number of equations as a parameter
   Quadratic2(int limit) throws IOException {  // Constructor
      // All computations are performed in a loop
      for (int count=0; count<limit; count++) { // setting count to 0, if count is less than limit , then count is incremented by 1
         // Reading the coefficients
         System.out.print("Please enter coefficient a: ");
         double coeffA = Double.parseDouble(inp.readLine());
         System.out.print("Please enter coefficient b: ");
         double coeffB = Double.parseDouble(inp.readLine());
         System.out.print("Please enter coefficient c: ");
         double coeffC = Double.parseDouble(inp.readLine());
         System.out.println();
         double Disc = discr(coeffA, coeffB, coeffC);  // Compute discriminant
         if (Disc >= 0.0) {  // Solution exists
            // Solving the equation
            double root1 = roots(coeffA, coeffB, coeffC, true);
            double root2 = roots(coeffA, coeffB, coeffC, false);
            // Outputting results
            System.out.println("Quadratic equation with the following coefficients:");
            System.out.println("A: " + coeffA + "; B: " + coeffB + "; C: " + coeffC);
            System.out.println("has the following solution:");
            System.out.println("Root1: " + root1 + "; Root2: " + root2);
         else {  // Solution does not exist
            System.out.println("Quadratic equation with the following coefficients:");
            System.out.println("A: " + coeffA + "; B: " + coeffB + "; C: " + coeffC);
            System.out.println("has no solution in the real domain.");
         System.out.println("");
   // A method to compute the discriminant
   double discr(double a, double b, double c) {
      return b*b - 4*a*c;
   // A method to calculate roots
   double roots(double a, double b, double c, boolean which) {
      double Disc = discr(a, b, c);
      if (which) {
         return (-b - Math.sqrt(Disc))/(2*a);
      else {
         return (-b + Math.sqrt(Disc))/(2*a);
   public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException { //Must throw an IO execption
      int noEqs = 1;  // Number of equations
      noEqs = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);  // Passed from command line
      Quadratic2 obj = new Quadratic2(noEqs);
}I was told to read the coefficients with a method named readCoeffs() but evey time I try to do that I get several errors and as mentioned previously I am new to Java and therefore not able to interpret these errors. As you can see in the above code i read the coeffecients as they are entered but not via a method. I tryed using using the following but to no avail:
  double coeffA = readCoeffs(in);
      double coeffB = readCoeffs(in);
      double coeffC = readCoeffs(in);I was wondering if any of you more experienced programmers are able to show me how or help me write a method to read the coefficients? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Sorry I should have been more specific in my question and provided more detail. Anyways i have revised my code to the following:
//Java Program that Calculates the Quadratic Formula using a loop written by Kris Andrews
// 10/08/07
// Intro to Programming/COP 2006
import java.io.*;//import java library
class Quadratic2 { //Naming Class
   Quadratic2(int limit) throws IOException {  // Constructor that takes variable as parameter and computes as many times as the value entered
      // All computations are performed in a loop
      for (int i=0; i<limit; i++) { // setting i to 0, if i is less than limit , then i is incremented by 1
   // Declarations necessary to use kbd input //Declaring variable locally
   InputStreamReader inStream = new InputStreamReader(System.in);
   BufferedReader inp = new BufferedReader(inStream);
// Method to read coefficients
   double readCoeffs() throws IOException {
         System.out.print("Please enter coefficient a: ");
         A = Double.parseDouble(inp.readLine());
         System.out.print("Please enter coefficient b: ");
         B = Double.parseDouble(inp.readLine());
         System.out.print("Please enter coefficient c: ");
         C = Double.parseDouble(inp.readLine());
         System.out.println("");
         return true;
   double Disc = discr(A, B, C);  // Compute discriminant
         if (Disc >= 0.0) {  // Solution exists
            // Solving the equation
            double root1 = roots(A, B, C, true);
            double root2 = roots(A, B, C, false);
            // Outputting results
            System.out.println("Quadratic equation with the following coefficients:");
            System.out.println("A: " + A + "; B: " + B + "; C: " + C);
            System.out.println("has the following solution:");
            System.out.println("Root1: " + root1 + "; Root2: " + root2);
         else {  // Solution does not exist
            System.out.println("Quadratic equation with the following coefficients:");
            System.out.println("A: " + A + "; B: " + B + "; C: " + C);
            System.out.println("has no solution in the real domain.");
         System.out.println("");
   // A method to compute the discriminant
   double discr(double a, double b, double c) {
      return b*b - 4*a*c;
   // A method to calculate roots
   double roots(double a, double b, double c, boolean which) {
      double Disc = discr(a, b, c);
      if (which) {
         return (-b - Math.sqrt(Disc))/(2*a);
      else {
         return (-b + Math.sqrt(Disc))/(2*a);
   public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException { //Must throw an IO execption
      int Equations = 1;  // Number of equations
      Equations = Integer.parseInt(args[0]);  // Passed from command line
      Quadratic2 obj = new Quadratic2(Equations);
}But I get the following error:
Quadratic2.java:23: ';' expected
double readCoeffs() throws IOException {
^
Quadratic2.java:23: not a statement
double readCoeffs() throws IOException {
^
Quadratic2.java:23: ';' expected
double readCoeffs() throws IOException {
^
I did not receive this error prior to trying to read the coefficients via a method and what do i need to to correct these errors? Again any help would be appreciated!