Using variable from another method?

Question

Hi all, i have the code below and am getting error of:
cannot find symbol
symbol : variable myList
location: class Driver
          myList.addFirst(nodeone);
The areas noted are in bold, i want to seperate my code in the if statements into seperate methods which can be called, but when i do this i dont have access to the mylist variable. am i getting the right end of the stick? Hope someone can help. Thx
import java.util.*;
public class Driver
public static void main(String args[])
List myList = new List();
System.out.println("COMMAND LIST");
System.out.println("");
System.out.println("addFirst - Inserts a node at the beginning of the list");
System.out.println("addLast - Inserts a node at the end of the list");
System.out.println("getFirst - Returns the first node in the list");
System.out.println("getLast - Returns the last node in the list");
System.out.println("");
     Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
     String command;
     System.out.print("Please enter a command: ");
     command = input.next();
     if (command.equals("addFirst"))
          inputAddFirst();
          else if (command.equals("addLast"))
                    String nodeName;
                    System.out.print("Enter name of Last Node: ");
                    nodeName = input.next();
                    Node nodelast = new Node(nodeName);
                    myList.addLast(nodelast);
                    System.out.println("Setting Last Node");
          public static void inputAddFirst()
          String nodeName;
          Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
          System.out.print("Enter name of First Node: ");
          nodeName = input.next();
          Node nodeone = new Node(nodeName);
          myList.addFirst(nodeone);
          System.out.println("Setting First Node");
}

Answer 1

You can pass myList to the method that uses it.
Or, you can make inputAddFirst just return an object, and add it in main.
Or you could make myList a field, rather than a local variable. If you do that however, you'd probably want the stuff in main to go into a new, non-static method. Also you shouldn't use fields for what are in essence temporary variables, so ask yourself whether myList really represents the ongoing state of whatever object it's in.