Problem Accessing Instantiated Objects

Question

I'm sorry for the long code that follows. Am hoping that someone can point out some ideas for how to structure this properly. Following my instructor's cookie requirements, the first panel two user inputed balances and an interest rate. Two objects are instantiated, one for each balance, in a seperate class. The results of 12 months of savings are then displayed in the 2nd panel. There is then the required option to change the interest rate. When modified, it should show the new interests and balances for the original balances instead.
I successfully got the first set of interests and new balances, and thought, "sweet! I'm home free now!"
Because God himself hates me, this is of course not the case. It's not recognizing the objects in the second event, which is modifying the interest rate.
I'm not sure how I can restructure this so that the objects which are instantiated using user input can be accessible by both events. If anybody can suffer through looking at all this junk and has some ideas (or even just some general advice on how to manipulate objects), I'd appreciate it.
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.text.DecimalFormat;
public class SavingsTest extends JFrame
    private JLabel balanceLabel, dollaSign, balanceLabel2, dollaSign2, percentSign, rateLabel;
    private JTextField balanceField, balanceField2, rateField;
    private JTextArea displayArea;
    private JButton submitButton, modifyButton;
    private String cBalance1S, cBalance2S, intRateS;
    private double cBalance1, cBalance2, intRate, oldBalance1, oldBalance2;
    // Constructor creates frame
    public SavingsTest ()
        super( "Savings Calculator" );
        Container container = getContentPane();
        JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
        mainPanel.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
        mainPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));   
*          INPUT PANEL        *
        JPanel inputPanel = new JPanel();
        inputPanel.setLayout(null);        
        inputPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500,250));         
  //      inputPanel.setBackground(Color.white);       
        inputPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
                      BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Enter Data"),
                      BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5)));
        // Consumer 1 Balance Components
        balanceLabel = new JLabel ("Enter Customer 1 balance:"); 
        balanceLabel.setBounds(85,25,168,24);
        inputPanel.add(balanceLabel);
        dollaSign = new JLabel ("$ "); 
        dollaSign.setBounds(125,55,168,24);
        inputPanel.add(dollaSign);       
        balanceField = new JTextField(10);
        balanceField.setBounds(145,55,50,24);
        inputPanel.add(balanceField);
        // Consumer 2 Balance Components
        balanceLabel2 = new JLabel ("Enter Customer 2 balance:"); 
        balanceLabel2.setBounds(265,25,168,24);
        inputPanel.add(balanceLabel2);
        dollaSign2 = new JLabel ("$ "); 
        dollaSign2.setBounds(305,55,168,24);
        inputPanel.add(dollaSign2);       
        balanceField2 = new JTextField(10);
        balanceField2.setBounds(325,55,50,24);
        inputPanel.add(balanceField2);        
    // Interest Rate Components      
        rateLabel = new JLabel ("Enter annual rate :"); 
        rateLabel.setBounds(215,105,168,24);
        inputPanel.add(rateLabel);
        percentSign = new JLabel ("% "); 
        percentSign.setBounds(215,145,168,24);
        inputPanel.add(percentSign);       
        rateField = new JTextField(10);
        rateField.setBounds(235,145,50,24);
        inputPanel.add(rateField); 
     // Submit Button Component
        submitButton = new JButton("SUBMIT");
        submitButton.setBounds(215, 185, 80, 30);
        inputPanel.add(submitButton);
        mainPanel.add(inputPanel);             
*          DISPLAY PANEL      *
        JPanel displayPanel = new JPanel();
        displayPanel.setLayout(null);        
        displayPanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500,375));        
        displayPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
                      BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Monthly Interest & Balances"),
                      BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5)));
        // Modify Interest Rate Button Component
        modifyButton = new JButton("Modify Rate");
        modifyButton.setEnabled( false );       
        modifyButton.setBounds(215, 25, 80, 30);
        displayPanel.add(modifyButton);    
        // Display Area Component
        displayArea = new JTextArea(); 
        displayArea.setEditable(false);
        displayArea.setBounds(25,85,445,275);
        displayPanel.add(displayArea);          
        mainPanel.add(displayPanel);    
*         MAIN PANEL           *
        container.add( mainPanel);      
        setSize(630, 700);
        setVisible( true );  
*     SUBMIT BUTTON EVENT               *
submitButton.addActionListener(
          new ActionListener()
     { // Open ActionListener
          public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e)
                    getInput();
     } // Close ActionListener
*          MODIFY BUTTON EVENT          *
modifyButton.addActionListener(
          new ActionListener()
     { // Open ActionListener
          public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e)
                    modifyInput();
     } // Close ActionListener
    }  // End Constructor
public static void main ( String args[] )
      SavingsTest initiate = new SavingsTest();
      initiate.setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
   private void getInput()
            // Get values from fields and assign to Strings
            cBalance1S = balanceField.getText();
            balanceField.setText("");
            cBalance2S = balanceField2.getText();
            balanceField2.setText("");
            intRateS = rateField.getText();
            rateField.setText("");
            // Parse Strings to doubles, etc
            cBalance1 = Double.parseDouble(cBalance1S);           
            cBalance2 = Double.parseDouble(cBalance2S);
            intRate = Double.parseDouble(intRateS);           
            intRate = intRate * .01;
            oldBalance1 = cBalance1;
            oldBalance2 = cBalance2;
            submitButton.setEnabled( false );
            modifyButton.setEnabled( true );
            SavingsAccount account1 = new SavingsAccount(cBalance1, intRate);
            SavingsAccount account2 = new SavingsAccount(cBalance2, intRate);              
            displayArea.append("\t         Account 1\t\t         Account 2\n");
            displayArea.append("\tInterest\tBalance\tInterest\tBalance\n");
            DecimalFormat twoDigits = new DecimalFormat( "0.00");
            // Calculate Interests & Balances, then display
            for (int i = 1; i <13; i++)
                double interest1 = account1.calculateMonthlyInterest ();
                double interest2 = account2.calculateMonthlyInterest ();
                double newBalance1 = account1.calculateNewBalance(interest1);
                double newBalance2 = account2.calculateNewBalance(interest2);
                displayArea.append("Month " + i + ":\t" + twoDigits.format(interest1)
                + "\t" + twoDigits.format(newBalance1) + "\t" +
                twoDigits.format(interest2) + "\t" + twoDigits.format(newBalance2)
                + "\n");
   private void modifyInput()
     intRateS = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(" Enter new annual rate: ");       
        intRate = Double.parseDouble(intRateS);
        SavingsAccount.modifyInterestRate(intRate);
        displayArea.setText("");
            displayArea.append("\t         Account 1\t\t         Account 2\n");
            displayArea.append("\tInterest\tBalance\tInterest\tBalance\n");
            DecimalFormat twoDigits = new DecimalFormat( "0.00");
            // Calculate Interests & Balances, then display
            for (int i = 1; i <13; i++)
                // ERROR IS HERE WHERE IT DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE OBJECTS
                double interest1 = account1.calculateMonthlyInterest ();
                double interest2 = account2.calculateMonthlyInterest ();
                double newBalance1 = account1.calculateNewBalance(interest1);
                double newBalance2 = account2.calculateNewBalance(interest2);
                displayArea.append("Month " + i + ":\t" + twoDigits.format(interest1)
                + "\t" + twoDigits.format(newBalance1) + "\t" +
                twoDigits.format(interest2) + "\t" + twoDigits.format(newBalance2)
                + "\n");
 

Answer 1

I believe I did indeed state was not being recognized.I didn't see it. But then, I didn't read all your code either. That's not me (or paul) being an asshole--it's just too much code.
Besides in the content of my post, if I were a
gambling woman, I'd wager it's probably within that
code which you went through so much trouble to make
sure everybody knows you aren't reading. He wasn't doing that for anybody's benefit but your own. That is a lot of code to read. Pasting in the exact error message the compiler gave you would have made it a lot easier for someone to help you. Yawmark waas very kind, but in general, if you want help here, you should post details about what the problem is. "Not recognizing objects" means next to nothing, but the actual error message tells us a lot. In fact, you should take a stab at reading it yourself. Error messages are your friends. They tell you pretty precisely what was wrong and where.
It says
exactly where the objects are unrecognizable. It's
even in big, red, pretty letters.The compiler gave you a lot more detail than that. You didn't indicate which objects.
But why make posts which make coherent sense when you
could just make an ass of yourself without all that
silly reading.Paul's comments were intended to goad you into posting something that would make it easier for people to help you.
>
For example, complaining that there's too much code
(having seen only half the code at that), It doesn't matter if that was only 0.001% of your code. It's too much to post here for that problem. It's understandable that you wouldn't know that, as you're new here, but copping an attitude instead of accepting the constructive criticism doesn't really accomplish anything.
The only thing lending itself to the idea that God
hates me is the fact that he let some idiot such as
yourself wonder into this thread. There are some
brilliant, wonderful, kind, and very helpful people on
these forums to which I am eternally grateful. Then I
guess there's also you.Actually, paulcw helps a lot of people here. Like most of us, he gets annoyed sometimes at poorly constructed questions.
I hope that you won't take the above as a personal attack. It's not intended that way. It's intended to be constructive criticism.