Switch Statement Help

[neovo-88]

Hi,

Im new to java and was wondering if someone could help me with my problem.

Im writing a program which will calculate how long a journey will take, the user will need to enter a character to represent what type of road/speed they are doing and how long the journey is.

This is the road/speed details:-

If they type “m” they are on a (motorway) travelling 85 kph
“a” (A road) 70 kph
“ b” (B road) 55 kph
“u” (urban) 40 kph

I need to declare the speeds as a constant. Read the character inputted and use a "switch" statement to set the speed accordingly to above.

So far I can’t get the “switch” statement to work correctly, here is my code:-

public class Travel {
   
   public static void main(String[] argv) 
   {
    
        double traveldistance, time;
        int convertseconds, hours, remainder, minutes, seconds;
        
        char roadtype;
                      
        ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        
        System.out.println ("Type the road type:");     // Prompts to enter travel distance and reads the values
        roadtype = UserInput.readChar();
                         
        switch (roadtype){
            case 'm':                                    // Motorway
                     double m=85;
                     break;
                    
            case 'a':                                   // A Road
                     double a=70;
                     break;
                    
            case 'b':                                   // B Road
                     double b=55;
                     break;
                    
            case 'u':                                   // Urban Road
                     double u=40;
                     break;
            
            default:
                    System.out.println("Invalid road type " + roadtype);          // Invalid road type
                    System.exit(0);
                    break;
        }
                
        ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        
        System.out.println ("Type the travel distance:");    // Prompts to enter travel distance and reads the values
        traveldistance = UserInput.readDouble();
                      
        ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
   
        time = traveldistance / roadtype;            // formula (units in hours)
        
        convertseconds = (int)((time * 60) * 60);    // converts hours to seconds
                        
        hours = convertseconds / 3600;               // converts the seconds to HH:MM:SS
        remainder = convertseconds % 3600;
        minutes = remainder / 60;
        seconds = remainder % 60;
        
        /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        
        System.out.println ("To travel " + traveldistance + " takes " + convertseconds + " seconds");
        System.out.println ("To travel " + traveldistance + " takes " + hours + " hours " + minutes + " minutes " + seconds + " seconds");
              
   
   } // end of main

} // end class

The data I need to enter is:-

Type the road type: m
Type the travel distance: 1234

The output should be:-

To travel 1234.0 road type m takes 52263 seconds
To travel 1234.0 road type m takes 14 hours 31 minutes 3 seconds

When I try my program I get:-

To travel 1234.0 takes 40755 seconds
To travel 1234.0 takes 11 hours 19 minutes 15 seconds

I can’t seem to understand what the problem is ( I think its the switch statement).

Any help is much appreciated .

Hope i havent confused you :confused:

Thanks

[BestJewSinceJC]

Well your switch statement has no affect because you declared your variables inside the switch. Declare the variables outside of the switch if you want your assignment statements to do anything. i.e. what I did with your 'm' variable below.

public class Travel {
   
   public static void main(String[] argv) 
   {
    
        double traveldistance, time, m;
        int convertseconds, hours, remainder, minutes, seconds;
        
        char roadtype;
                      
        ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        
        System.out.println ("Type the road type:");     // Prompts to enter travel distance and reads the values
        roadtype = UserInput.readChar();
                         
        switch (roadtype){
            case 'm':                                    // Motorway
                     m=85;
                     break;
                    
            case 'a':                                   // A Road
                     double a=70;
                     break;
                    
            case 'b':                                   // B Road
                     double b=55;
                     break;
                    
            case 'u':                                   // Urban Road
                     double u=40;
                     break;
            
            default:
                    System.out.println("Invalid road type " + roadtype);          // Invalid road type
                    System.exit(0);
                    break;
        }
                
        ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        
        System.out.println ("Type the travel distance:");    // Prompts to enter travel distance and reads the values
        traveldistance = UserInput.readDouble();
                      
        ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
   
        time = traveldistance / roadtype;            // formula (units in hours)
        
        convertseconds = (int)((time * 60) * 60);    // converts hours to seconds
                        
        hours = convertseconds / 3600;               // converts the seconds to HH:MM:SS
        remainder = convertseconds % 3600;
        minutes = remainder / 60;
        seconds = remainder % 60;
        
        /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        
        System.out.println ("To travel " + traveldistance + " takes " + convertseconds + " seconds");
        System.out.println ("To travel " + traveldistance + " takes " + hours + " hours " + minutes + " minutes " + seconds + " seconds");
              
   
   } // end of main

} // end class

[neovo-88]

Thanks for the advice of doing:-

public class Travel {
   
   public static void main(String[] argv) 
   {
    
        double traveldistance, time, m, a, b, u;
        int convertseconds, hours, remainder, minutes, seconds;
        char roadtype;
                      
        ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        
        System.out.println ("Type the road type:");     // Prompts to enter travel distance and reads the values
        roadtype = UserInput.readChar();
                         
        switch (roadtype){
            case 'm':                                    // Motorway
                     m=85;
                     break;
                    
            case 'a':                                   // A Road
                     a=70;
                     break;
                    
            case 'b':                                   // B Road
                     b=55;
                     break;
                    
            case 'u':                                   // Urban Road
                     u=40;
                     break;
            
            default:
                    System.out.println("Invalid road type " + roadtype);          // Invalid road type
                    System.exit(0);
                    break;
        }

I tried it but i still get the same output of:-

To travel 1234.0 takes 40755 seconds
To travel 1234.0 takes 11 hours 19 minutes 15 seconds

[stultuske]

you don't actually use the values you decide within the switch, so how exactly do you expect them to change the outcome?

[neovo-88]

you don't actually use the values you decide within the switch, so how exactly do you expect them to change the outcome?

Thanks for the info, I managed to get it to work :)

public class Travel {
   
   public static void main(String[] argv) 
   {
    
        double traveldistance, time;
        int convertseconds, hours, remainder, minutes, seconds;
        char roadtype='x';
        double roadspeed='x';
                      
        ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        
        System.out.println ("Type the road type:");     // Prompts to enter travel distance and reads the values
        roadtype = UserInput.readChar();
                         
        switch (roadtype){
            case 'm':                                    // Motorway
                     roadspeed=85;
                     break;
                    
            case 'a':                                   // A Road
                     roadspeed=70;
                     break;
                    
            case 'b':                                   // B Road
                     roadspeed=55;
                     break;
                    
            case 'u':                                   // Urban Road
                     roadspeed=40;
                     break;
            
            default:
                    System.out.println("Invalid road type " + roadtype);          // Invalid road type
                    System.exit(0);
                    break;
        }
                
        ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        
        System.out.println ("Type the travel distance:");    // Prompts to enter travel distance and reads the values
        traveldistance = UserInput.readDouble();
                      
        ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
   
        time = traveldistance / roadspeed;            // formula (units in hours)