Variable not initializing

Question

I have a class that is parsing the standard date string to extract each discrete element using StringTokenizer. There is two loops with a switch. The first loop looks for tokens separated by spaces; the second loop looks for the colons in the time part of the date.
The second StringTokenizer is bombing with the compiler error, as follows:
variable strTime might not have been initialized
StringTokenizer st2 = new StringTokenizer( strTime, ":" );The println in the first switch shows that strTime does hold the date.
Any ideas about how to work around this problem? The class code follows:
     public     DateElements getDateElements( Date baseDate, String szPattern, DateElements datel )     {
          String szBuf;
          String strDate;
          String strTimeZone;
          int token;
          String strTime;
          // get the string date and tokenize its elements
          // Mon Feb 25 16:00:00 EST 2002
          // 1 2 3 4 5 6
          strDate = baseDate.toString( );
          StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer( strDate );
          token = 1;
          while( st.hasMoreTokens( ) )     {
               szBuf = st.nextToken( );
               switch( token++ )     {
               case 1:               // string Day of week
                    datel.setDayOfWeek( szBuf );
                    break;
               case 2:               // string month
                    datel.setMonth( szBuf );
                    break;
               case 3:               // numeric date
                    datel.setDate( Integer.parseInt( szBuf) );
                    break;
               case 4:               // Time
                    strTime = szBuf;
                    break;
               case 5:               // Time Zone
                    strTimeZone = szBuf;
                    break;
               case 6:               // Year
                    datel.setYear( Integer.parseInt( szBuf ) );
                    break;
          StringTokenizer st2 = new StringTokenizer( strTime, ":" );
          token = 1;
          while( st2.hasMoreTokens( ) )     {
               szBuf = st2.nextToken( );
               switch( token++ )     {
               case 1:               // st2ring Hour
                    datel.setDayOfWeek( Integer.parseInt( szBuf ) );
                    break;
               case 2:               // st2ring Minute
                    datel.setMonth( Integer.parseInt( szBuf ) );
                    break;
               case 3:               // numeric Second
                    datel.setDate( Integer.parseInt( szBuf) );
                    break;
          return( datel );
TIA,
James
P.S. If anyone can tell me how to make these code snippets maintain the indentation, I'd appreciate it. I've tried both tables and spaces.

Answer 1

try to put in the declaration of the variable
String myString = null;
and the warning message will disapear and your code will work. This message if thrown by the compiler because could be possible that the variable you mentioned would not be inicialized (because the assigment statement is in the case statement the compiler cannot assure it will be executed before you use to declare the StringTokenizer).
To post code here you should use the speacial tokens that are mentioned in the "post" pages. I suggest to watch at them.
Hope this helps
Zerjio