Local variables are variables that are not fields of a class. A function or method often store its temporary state in local variables. Local variables only visible to the methods in which they are declared.
Local variables must be declared and initialized before it used for the first time. Local variables will not get a default value if you do not initialize it and could cause a compile-time error.
package org.kodejava.basic;
public class LocalVariableExample {
// it's okay if total variable does not initialize.
// it will initialize with default value = 0.
int total;
public static int add() {
// this will cause compile-time error if does not initialize
int x = 1, y = 2;
// z is assigned by the calculation result of x + y
int z = x + y;
return z;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
LocalVariableExample lve = new LocalVariableExample();
// assigns total with the result of add() method execution
lve.total = add();
System.out.println("total= " + lve.total);
}
}