Problem with path and compiling

Question

I am trying to compile a class where I have and object I created as well. It complains that it cannot find that object (or class in the classpath) and fires this error when I try to compile:
Error: csci5433.database.animals.Pets.customerName is declared to be of type csci5433.database.customer.Customer and class csci543
3.database.customer.Customer can't be located in the classpath.
Now, when I add the class file to the classpath it fires this other error:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: and
Customer class does not have a main method or anything of the like and when I compile that class it compiles without problem.
Thanks!

Answer 1

You don't put full paths to class files in the classpath. You just put in jar files and directories that hold the classes. And the directories should reflect the package structure. So if there's a file c:\monkey\cow\Horse.class, and Horse is a class in the package "cow", then the classpath should include "c:\monkey", and that's it. It shouldn't include c:\monkey\cow\ or c:\monkey\cow\Horse.class.
Also try to remember that most things in java take class names, not file names. In the above example, the full name of the Horse class is "cow.Horse". Except for the compiler, one almost never mentions filenames.
So I'm guessing that you specified the classpath incorrectly, and you created your jars incorrectly.
I'm still confused why the compiler would say:Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: andWhere did you ever use the word "and"?