What's with this code?

Question

if(message.startsWith("!setevent ")){
String event;
event = String.format(message.substring(10));
sendMessage(channel, "Event set to: "+ event +"!");
if(message.startsWith("!event")){
sendMessage(sender, event);
It is for an IRC bot, and i am UBERCONFUSED!

Answer 1

Yes but my IF statement must have that variable in
there because if someone types "!setevent today we
will have a picnic" and someone types "!event"they
would get what the orignial !seteventer did. But ifI
declare it somewhere else it will always stay the
same until I close it, change it, compile it, andrun
it, which is a huge hassle.I have no idea what you're talking about. Try this:
String event;
if(message.startsWith("!setevent ")){
event = String.format(message.substring(10));
sendMessage(channel, "Event set to: "+ event +"!");
if(message.startsWith("!event")){
sendMessage(sender, event);
when I do that it says "Variable event may not have been initialized." HELP!