illegal start of expression when declaring method that throws an exception

[Bud Tippins]

I'm getting an error when I try to declare a method that throws en exception. The error that NetBeans shows on line #13 is "illegal start of expression." What is wrong with line #13?

Any help greatly appreciated.

package practicestuff;

public class PracticeStuff {
    public static void main (String [] args) {
        PracticeStuff ps = new PracticeStuff();
        String foodeaten = "Brocolli";
        try {
            ps.checkFood(foodeaten);
        }  catch(BadFoodException be)  {
            System.out.println(foodeaten + " was bad!");
     }

    public void checkFood(String food) throws BadFoodException {
       

        If (food == "Brocolli"){
            System.out.println("hello");
            //throw BadFoodException();
        }
    }
}

class BadFoodException extends Exception {

}

[Stephan van Hulst]

Hi Bud. You are missing a brace in your main method.

[Wouter Oet]

And your if statement is incorrect.

[Joanne Neal]

Wouter Oet wrote:And your if statement is incorrect.

There are actually two problems with the if statement. The one will be easy to spot because the compiler will give an error.
The other is a bit more difficult because once all the compiler errors are fixed, the code will actually work how the OP expects.

Bud - once you have the program compiling, run it and it should work as you expect. Now try changing line 6 to

String foodeaten = new String("Brocolli");

and see what happens.

[Louis Cheung]

Hey,Bud!I just found 2 mistakes in your program.Hope my tips could be helpful.
First,the IF statement should be in lower case.
Then,when you tried to throw an exception in a method,you should use "throw new xxxException();"

if (food == "Brocolli") 
{
      System.out.println("hello");
      throw new BadFoodException();
}

[Campbell Ritchie]

Welcome to the Ranch

You found two problems with the if statement, but as Joanne Neal has already said, there is a more serious problem, which you have not noticed.

[Bud Tippins]

Thank you all for your help.

[Joanne Neal]

So did you fix the problem I was hinting at ?