Java head: object references variables

[Omar Perez]

Greetings,

I'm getting this error C:\Users\Omar\Desktop>javac Dog.java
Dog.java:17: '(' or '[' expected
myDogs[2]=new dog1;
^
1 error

class Dog {
 String name;
  public static void main (String[] args){
  
  //make a Dog object and access it
  Dog dog1 = new Dog();
  dog1.bark();
  dog1.name = "Bart";
  
  //now make a Dog array
  Dog[] myDogs = new Dog[3];
  
  //and put some dogs in it
  
  myDogs[0]=new Dog();
  myDogs[1]=new Dog();
  myDogs[2]=new dog1;

  //now access the dogs using the array references

  myDogs[0].name="Fred";
  myDogs[1].name="Marge";

  //hmmm... what is myDogs[2] name?
  System.out.print("last dog's name is");
  System.out.println(myDogs[2].name);
  
  //now loop through the array and tell all the dogs to bark
  
  int x=0;
  while(x < myDogs.length) {
  myDogs[x].bark();
  x=x+1;
   }
  }
  
  public void bark(){
   System.out.println(name + "says ruff1");
   }
   
   public void eat() {
   // empty method
   }
   public void chaseCat(){
    //empty method
   }
   }

What I'm doing wrong?

[Jesper de Jong]

Look at line 17. The syntax for creating a new Dog object is wrong there. Note that in line 15 and 16 you're doing it correctly. Why did you suddenly do it differently in line 17?

[Ove Lindström]

In other languages you may do a copy of an already existing object by using something like the syntax you have on line 17.

In this case, I think that you wanted to put the dog1 into the last position of the array and you should just assign it (remove the new keyword).