"int cannot be dereferenced" in Java

BBladem83 picture BBladem83 · Oct 1, 2013 · Viewed 234.7k times · Source

I'm fairly new to Java and I'm using BlueJ. I keep getting this "Int cannot be dereferenced" error when trying to compile and I'm not sure what the problem is. The error is specifically happening in my if statement at the bottom, where it says "equals" is an error and "int cannot be dereferenced." Hope to get some assistance as I have no idea what to do. Thank you in advance!

public class Catalog {
    private Item[] list;
    private int size;

    // Construct an empty catalog with the specified capacity.
    public Catalog(int max) {
        list = new Item[max];
        size = 0;
    }

    // Insert a new item into the catalog.
    // Throw a CatalogFull exception if the catalog is full.
    public void insert(Item obj) throws CatalogFull {
        if (list.length == size) {
            throw new CatalogFull();
        }
        list[size] = obj;
        ++size;
    }

    // Search the catalog for the item whose item number
    // is the parameter id.  Return the matching object 
    // if the search succeeds.  Throw an ItemNotFound
    // exception if the search fails.
    public Item find(int id) throws ItemNotFound {
        for (int pos = 0; pos < size; ++pos){
            if (id.equals(list[pos].getItemNumber())){ //Getting error on "equals"
                return list[pos];
            }
            else {
                throw new ItemNotFound();
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer

Juned Ahsan picture Juned Ahsan · Oct 1, 2013

id is of primitive type int and not an Object. You cannot call methods on a primitive as you are doing here :

id.equals

Try replacing this:

        if (id.equals(list[pos].getItemNumber())){ //Getting error on "equals"

with

        if (id == list[pos].getItemNumber()){ //Getting error on "equals"