Find total annual salary project

[Artemis Ehnis]

I'm completely new to programming of any type. My goal is a java app that takes 2 fixed variable (salary and commission %) plus a user input for total annual sales. Finds the product of annual sales and commission% then adds that result to the fixed salary to output a total annual salary.
This is where I'm at right now. Am I on the right track? pointers on fixing whats here?

Thank you

package total.annual.salary;

import java.util.Scanner;

/**
 *
 * @author scottjensen
 */
public class TotalAnnualSalary {
    
        private String firstName = "Sandra";
        private String lastName = "Smith";
        private double annualSalary = 50000.00;
        private double commission = 0.035;
        
    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        double annualSale = 1 ;
        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
        
        System.out.print("What are your total sales for the year");
        annualSale = input.nextDouble();

[Pete Letkeman]

A couple of thoughts:
If you name is "Artemis Ehnis" then why do the JavaDoc comments state that the author is "scottjensen"
What is the purpose of these lines, is this a test case?

private String firstName = "Sandra";
private String lastName = "Smith";
private double annualSalary = 50000.00;
private double commission = 0.035;

The code that you've provided does not run as it is, you are missing a couple of }.
You appear to be doing okay, but it's kind of hard to tell. We can tell more once you have the program doing a bit more.

[Pete Letkeman]

And welcome to CodeRanch.

I hope that you will find that there are many people well versed in Java and most of them are willing and able to help out.
Please note, that we generally do not provide full working solutions, especially in the Beginning Java area.
Instead we provide hints and code snippets  so that the end user can discover the solution on their own.

[Artemis Ehnis]

The name discrepancy comes from there account creation. There was a ScottJensen already so I made a random name for my account. This is why my javadoc had my name and my account has a different name. I understand the concern though and thank you.
To answer the snippet I was trying to make sure those variables stayed static and nothing would change them. I realize that was not the way to do that.
I have since re-written my code and have it working. My only issue is the output is lacking spaces and I don't know how to fix that.

package total.annual.salary;

import java.util.Scanner;


/**
 *Provided a employee name, salary, and commission create a java app to print 
 * the annual salary of the named employee. You must ask the user to input total 
 * annual sales.
 * Use (total annual sales * Commission %)+salary=total annual income
 */
public class TotalAnnualSalary {

    private static double totalCommission;
    private static double totalPay;
    
       
  
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        /** 
         * These are the static variables
         */
        String firstName = "Sandra";//Employee first name (static)
        String lastName = "Smith";//Employee last name (static)
        double annualSalary = 50000.00;//Employee anaual salary (static)
        double commission = 0.035;//static commission % for sales
       
        /**
         * This is were the user input is added
         */
        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
        double annualSales;
        
        System.out.print("What are your total sales for the year?");
        annualSales = input.nextDouble();
        
        /**
         * Find the product of user input and commission % then Add to the salary
         * print "This is your total annual salary"
         */
        totalCommission = annualSales * commission;
        totalPay = totalCommission + annualSalary;
        System.out.println (firstName + "" + lastName + "" +
                "your total salary for the year is" + "" + totalPay);

[Pete Letkeman]

If you want finer control over how text is display then you should look into use the printf method https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/data/numberformat.html
You should not do this

System.out.println (firstName + "" + lastName + "" +  "your total salary for the year is" + "" + totalPay);

but maybe you meant to do this

System.out.println (firstName + " " + lastName + " your total salary for the year is " + totalPay);

The double quote with nothing in it is a waste of resources, with a space surrounding by the double quote you can get some formatting.

It appears as though you supplied code snippet is missing a couple of } at the end.
In the future, please supply those so that one can copy the full code and run it. Sometimes missing a } is the source of the problem.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Welcome again

I can see you are running into trouble. You are mixing things in a static context and things in an instance context. Get as much out of the static context as you can. Get as much code out of the main method as you can: we can see it is already too long and you have only shown us its beginning. Look here. You have made things worse between your first post and your second by moving the fields into the main method.

[Artemis Ehnis]

Perfect the space is what I was missing and that I was also forgetting to copy the last }} . Now it all seems to be running correctly. I need to eventually figure out how to change totalPay to output as a dollar amount.
Thank you for the quick responses it's allowing me to see the little things I'm missing.

package total.annual.salary;

import java.util.Scanner;


/**
 *Provided a employee name, salary, and commission create a java app to print 
 * the annual salary of the named employee. You must ask the user to input total 
 * annual sales.
 * Use (total annual sales * Commission %)+salary=total annual income
 */
public class TotalAnnualSalary {

    private static double totalCommission;
    private static double totalPay;
    
       
  
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        /** 
         * These are the static variables
         */
        String firstName = "Sandra";//Employee first name (static)
        String lastName = "Smith";//Employee last name (static)
        double annualSalary = 50000.00;//Employee anaual salary (static)
        double commission = 0.035;//static commission % for sales
       
        /**
         * This is were the user input is added
         */
        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
        double annualSales;
        
        System.out.print("What are your total sales for the year?");
        annualSales = input.nextDouble();
        
        /**
         * Find the product of user input and commission % then Add to the salary
         * print "This is your total annual salary"
         */
        totalCommission = annualSales * commission;
        totalPay = totalCommission + annualSalary;
        System.out.printf (firstName + " " + lastName + " " +
                "your total salary for the year is" + " " + totalPay);
        
    }
    
}

        

[Carey Brown]

Pete Letkeman wrote:

System.out.println (firstName + " " + lastName + " your total salary for the year is " + totalPay);

Pete's way is good, and I would recommend it. As a point of contrast, this is how I'd do it using the printf() method (print-formatted).

System.out.printf( "%s %s your total salary for the year is %.2f%n", firstName, lastName, totalPay );

Where
"%s" prints a String
"%.2f" prints a float or double with 2 decimal places
"%n" prints a new-line

[Liutauras Vilda]

There are more improvements could be made.

Did you learn about the methods use? In case yes, you are lacking that. All code is crammed to main method without attaching any context to its separate parts.

I'm also quite disappointed to see a suggestion of formula to be used in specified requirements, which is:
(total annual sales * Commission %)+salary=total annual income

Even though for most it looks trivial, I'd say much more readable is a form of other way round:
salary + (total annual sales * Commission %) = total annual income

And more correct explanation could be:
total annual income = salary + (total annual sales * Commission %)

And that is mainly because base salary is agreed upfront, while the commission might be earned at the end of sales period and might be not. Not sure if you get an idea what I have in mind, but such way of following suggested form of formula makes program cryptic, much harder to read and much harder to understand when you introduce more parts like that.

But probably it is just an unfortunate of the given instructions.

[Artemis Ehnis]

Thank you everyone.
I'm going to see if I can figure out accomplish the suggestion from @Campbell Ritchie.
@Carey Brown I can now see how that works. I spent some time last night trying to set that up I had figured out the %s for a string, but got lost in the others.
I have learned more in 1 day here than in 2 weeks of class.

[Campbell Ritchie]

I think you want a Worker object with name, salary, etc. as fields. This is of course a dreadful oversimplification. The object should have methods like calculateTotalEarnings. You may have such methods already, only with a different name. Consider making the toString method return a description including total pay. If you use the String#format() method, it uses % tags; they are exactly the same tags as you would use for System.out.printf.
Consider making the commission (3½%) a final static field, but only if it can be regarded as a constant for all workers.

[Artemis Ehnis]

I have a question about using methods and classes in this program.
If I build a class run and a class main should an commission object be in the run or the main?

[Knute Snortum]

The traditional and recommended way of launching an application is to have a small class that has a main method in it.  The main method itself would have only one or two lines that launch the app, and that's it.

In your situation, the launching class might be called MainApp which would run TotalAnnnualSalary.  This might have a method called calculate and there you would use a Commission object.  (Remember, an object is an instance of a class.)  Where your Commission class (the file) is would depend on the size of your app, but for a little project having everything in one package is fine.

[Artemis Ehnis]

Thank you.
Yes I was trying to make a TotalCompensation (main) and a EmployeeSalary (run) that would do all the variables and do the math.
Just wanted to make sure the main was only the execution part and would display the output, while the run accepted the input and did all the calculations on the variables.

[Artemis Ehnis]

is there a quick and clean way to allow input and output as $xxx.xx ?

I just want to make sure I don't get an exception if the user puts a $ and , in the input for total sales.

[Carey Brown]

double dollars = Double.parseDouble(input.next().replaceAll( "[$,]", "" ));
System.out.printf( "$%,.2f%n", dollars ); // <== fixed my error

[Artemis Ehnis]

So I've had to move on to the next part which I've seen in other threads that I don't see working.
Now we add in a commission requirement, a bonus, and a table to show potential gains for higher sales.
I've been struggling with making mine work. I thought i had everything except for the tables and my main class, but still not sure.
I would like some feedback.

/**
 * The purpose of this program is to determine annual pay for a sales employee
 * "Program: CompensationApp"
 * "Version: 1.0.0.0"
 */
package week.pkg3;

/**
 *
 * @author
 */
public class CompensationApp {

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // TODO code application logic here
    }
    
}

/*
 * CompensationApp work file
 * "Version 1.0.0.0"
 *
 */
package week.pkg3;

import java.util.Scanner;


public class Compensation 
{
    /* 
    getSales
    calculate total sales to see if it is >80%
    if > calculate commission
    if < display salary
    create loop showing $5000 increments to 50% more than annualSales
    
    */
    
    Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
    
    private double salary = 50000;
    private double commission = 0.035;
    private double accelerator = 1.35; 
    private double target = 150000;
    private double sales;
    private double qualify;
    
    public Compensation(double salary, double commissionRate, double accelerator,
            double target, double sales, double qualify)
    {
        this.salary = salary;
        this.commission = commissionRate;
        this.accelerator = accelerator;
        this.target = target;
        this.sales = sales;
        this.qualify = qualify;
    }

    public void setSalary(double salary)
    {
        this.salary = salary;
    }
    public double getSalary()
    {
        return this.salary;
    }
    public void setCommission(double commission)
    {
        this.commission = commission;
    }
    public double getCommission()
    {
        return this.commission;
    }
    public void setAccelerator(double accelerator )
    {
        this.accelerator = accelerator;
    }
    public double getAccelerator()
    {
        return this.accelerator;
    }
     public void setTarget(double target)
    {
        this.target = target;
    }
    public double getTarget()
    {
        return this.target;
    }
     public void setSales(double sales)
    {
        this.sales = sales;
    }
    public double getSales()
    {
        return this.sales;
    }
    /*
    Computing commission is based on sales. Employee must sell at least 80% of
    sales target to earn a commission. Should the employee sell more than the
    target they earn a bonus to their comission (accelerator).
    If the employee doesn't meet 80% of the sales target they get no commission
    */
    public double computePay()
    {
        System.out.println ("Please input your total sales for the year:");
        sales = input.nextDouble();
        qualify = (target * 0.8);
        if (sales >= 0 && sales >= qualify)
        {
            double annualPay;
            annualPay = salary + sales * commission;
            System.out.println("You have earned your commission your annual pay "
                    + "is "annualPay);
                    if (sales >= 0 && sales > target)
                        
                    {
                        double annualPay2;
                annualPay2 = salary + ((sales * commission) * accelerator);
                        System.out.println("Congratulations you have earned a "
                                + "commission bonus your total is " annualPay2);
                                else 
                                {
                                        System.out.println("You didn't qualify "
                                        + "for the commission bonus");
                                }
                                else 
                                {
                                        System.out.println("You did not qualify "
                                        + "for a commission");
                                }
                    }
        }            
        
        
            
 

[Carey Brown]

Methods should do one thing and the name of the method should clearly state the intent.
You have a method computePay() that actually does three things: Prompts for sales, computes the pay, and prints a response. I would suggest breaking these responsibilities into separate methods. It might be handy to have a couple of private fields (no getters): commissionEarned, and bonusEarned, and anualPay.

[Artemis Ehnis]

Thank you Carey I can do that..

Any suggestions on a video that walks through an actual implementation of Scanner? not just a single class? I still don't know where to put the input and how to pass it across the classes. I've tried a couple things and still no joy.

[Carey Brown]

Artemis Ehnis wrote:Any suggestions on a video that walks through an actual implementation of Scanner? not just a single class? I still don't know where to put the input and how to pass it across the classes. I've tried a couple things and still no joy.

Because this Scanner issue comes up quite often, many developers create a utility class to handle this. As a utility all methods are static. Here's a bare bones one. Add this class to your project and then all your other classes can use Keyboard. To use it in your code it would be something like this:

String line = Keyboard.nextLine();

or

while( Keyboard.hasNextInt() )
    i = Keyboard.nextInt();

import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;


// Static wrapper for Scanner( System.in ).
// Only basic types supported so far.
// Don't expose access to KBD.

public class Keyboard
{
	private static final Scanner KBD = new Scanner( System.in );
	
	private Keyboard() {} // prevent instantiation
	
	// Note: close() is specifically not supported as it would
	// close System.in which we NEVER want to do.
	
	public static Pattern delimiter() { return KBD.delimiter(); }
	
	public static boolean hasNext() { return KBD.hasNext(); }
	public static boolean hasNextBoolean() { return KBD.hasNextBoolean(); }
	public static boolean hasNextDouble() { return KBD.hasNextDouble(); }
	public static boolean hasNextInt() { return KBD.hasNextInt(); }
	public static boolean hasNextLine() { return KBD.hasNextLine(); }
	public static boolean hasNextLong() { return KBD.hasNextLong(); }
	
	public static String next() { return KBD.next(); }
	public static boolean nextBoolean() { return KBD.nextBoolean(); }
	public static double nextDouble() { return KBD.nextDouble(); }
	public static int nextInt() { return KBD.nextInt(); }
	public static String nextLine() { return KBD.nextLine(); }
	public static long nextLong() { return KBD.nextLong(); }
	
	// These do not return a Scanner as this would expose the
	// KBD private member.
	public static void useDelimiter( Pattern pattern ) { KBD.useDelimiter( pattern ); }
	public static void useDelimiter( String pattern ) { KBD.useDelimiter( pattern ); }
}

[Campbell Ritchie]

For all nextXXX() methods except next(), I include a loop to verify that the token parsed is of the correct type, or nextLine() isn't returning the empty String. Rob Spoor taught me ages ago that you can completely avoid input mismatch exceptions with that technique. It is also quite easy to enhance those methods to accept (numeric) values within a specified range.
Since Java9, it has been possible to get a Stream<String> from a Scanner too. Maybe you should enhance that by requiring a sentinel value for stopping the Stream with takeWhile().

[Knute Snortum]

The method computePay() has quite a few syntax errors in it. The formatting is also bad and this hides some of the errors.  Please post code that will compile.  If you need help finding syntax errors, we can help, but try it yourself first, then post what you get.

[Artemis Ehnis]

Apparently I have something in the wrong place. I've fixed syntax errors and separated things out.
Now I can run the project without errors, but I get no request for input and no output other than run: 0.0 build successful (total time: 0 seconds)
I believe I need to move the scanner input into the main class. Should the if else statements be in the main class as well? Would it be better to make a employee class that has a constructor for the employee and compensation class with a compensation constructor?
I really want to learn the right way, but have zero background and the material I've been given is the certificate study guide and you folks.
Thank you for feedback and patients.

[Carey Brown]

Please re-post the code in its current state.

[Artemis Ehnis]

Constructor class

/*
 * CompensationApp work file
 * "Version 1.0.0.0"
 *
 */
package week.pkg3;


public class Compensation 
{
    /* 
    getSales
    calculate total sales to see if it is >80%
    if > calculate commission
    if < display salary
    create loop showing $5000 increments to 50% more than annualSales
    
    */
    
    
    
    private double salary = 50000;
    private double commission = 0.035;
    private double accelerator = 1.35; 
    private double target = 150000;
    double sales;
    private double qualify;
    private double commissionEarned;//method
    private double bonusEarned;//method
    private double annualPay;//method
    
    public Compensation(double salary, double commissionRate, double accelerator,
            double target)
    {
        this.salary = salary;
        this.commission = commissionRate;
        this.accelerator = accelerator;
        this.target = target;
        
        
    }

    public void setSalary(double salary)
    {
        this.salary = salary;
    }
    public double getSalary()
    {
        return this.salary;
    }
    public void setCommission(double commission)
    {
        this.commission = commission;
    }
    public double getCommission()
    {
        return this.commission;
    }
    public void setAccelerator(double accelerator )
    {
        this.accelerator = accelerator;
    }
    public double getAccelerator()
    {
        return this.accelerator;
    }
     public void setTarget(double target)
    {
        this.target = target;
    }
    public double getTarget()
    {
        return this.target;
    }
     public void setSales(double sales)
    {
        this.sales = sales;
    }
    public double getSales()
    {
        return this.sales;
    }
    /*
    Computing commission is based on sales. Employee must sell at least 80% of
    sales target to earn a commission. Should the employee sell more than the
    target they earn a bonus to their comission (accelerator).
    If the employee doesn't meet 80% of the sales target they get no commission
    */
    public void sales()
    {
        System.out.println("Please enter your total sales for the year:");
        sales = Keyboard.nextDouble();
    }
    private void commissionEarned()
    {
        commissionEarned = sales * commission;
    }
    private void bonusEarned()
    {
        bonusEarned = commissionEarned * accelerator;
    }
    private void qualify()
    {
        qualify = (.8 * target);
    }
    public void compute1()
    {
        if (sales > 0 && sales > qualify)
        {
            System.out.printf("Your comission is %.3f", commissionEarned);
        }
            else
            {System.out.println("You need to improve your sales");
                    
                    }
        
        
    }
}  
            
 

main class

/**
 * The purpose of this program is to determine annual pay for a sales employee
 * "Program: CompensationApp"
 * "Version: 1.0.0.0"
 */
package week.pkg3;

/**
 *
 * @author
 */
public class CompensationApp {

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        Compensation pay = new Compensation (50000, 0.035, 1.35, 150000);
        System.out.println(pay.sales);
       

        
    }
    
}

Carey's keyboard class

package week.pkg3;


import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 
// Static wrapper for Scanner( System.in ).
// Only basic types supported so far.
// Don't expose access to KBD.
 
public class Keyboard
{
    private static final Scanner KBD = new Scanner( System.in );
     
    private Keyboard() {} // prevent instantiation
     
    // Note: close() is specifically not supported as it would
    // close System.in which we NEVER want to do.
     
    public static Pattern delimiter() { return KBD.delimiter(); }
     
    public static boolean hasNext() { return KBD.hasNext(); }
    public static boolean hasNextBoolean() { return KBD.hasNextBoolean(); }
    public static boolean hasNextDouble() { return KBD.hasNextDouble(); }
    public static boolean hasNextInt() { return KBD.hasNextInt(); }
    public static boolean hasNextLine() { return KBD.hasNextLine(); }
    public static boolean hasNextLong() { return KBD.hasNextLong(); }
     
    public static String next() { return KBD.next(); }
    public static boolean nextBoolean() { return KBD.nextBoolean(); }
    public static double nextDouble() { return KBD.nextDouble(); }
    public static int nextInt() { return KBD.nextInt(); }
    public static String nextLine() { return KBD.nextLine(); }
    public static long nextLong() { return KBD.nextLong(); }
     
    // These do not return a Scanner as this would expose the
    // KBD private member.
    public static void useDelimiter( Pattern pattern ) { KBD.useDelimiter( pattern ); }
    public static void useDelimiter( String pattern ) { KBD.useDelimiter( pattern ); }
}

[Knute Snortum]

Where do you call the method to get the sales?

CompensationApp.java
   public static void main(String[] args)    {        Compensation pay = new Compensation (50000, 0.035, 1.35, 150000);        System.out.println(pay.sales);                    }

[Carey Brown]

I would have expected this method to have a conditional, like this

    private void commissionEarned()
    {
        commissionEarned = (sales > 0 && sales >= qualify) ? sales * commission : 0;
    }

[Liutauras Vilda]

I'm looking to this thread and can't follow to be honest. I don't think OP will ever solve this exercise/project that way.

If we call variables as methods in comments, that suggests that need to delete everything and start over with very small steps. And perhaps only after revising slides and class examples.

There are lots of methods but they never being called, or at least I don't see them called. Then OP mysteriously trying to access default sales field. I'm confused.

[Liutauras Vilda]

@OP

I don't think you need any keyboard utility classes here. In my opinion you need simple things which You can understand. That understanding comes when you trying in practice one or another technique without copying and pasting stuff and assuming it is OK because somebody more experienced gave you.

I also disagree with Carey here, I don't think it helps for OP to show such indentation (especially when he's a starter), at least I cannot follow it either. There are lots of stuff in that class OP doesn't need in that project, I think it just adds confusion, which is already too much in OP's head.

If OP would learn only a good indentation and formatting in this project getting lowest mark for everything else - I'd say that would be a bigger achievement than submit such work which is suspicious. Why all those getters setters if everything is meant to be printed from same class...

[Artemis Ehnis]

@Liutauras Vilda I really appreciate your response. I was trying to pick what i was asking for out of the comments, which some did take me deeper down a rabbit hole.
I have taken your advice and went back and started all over. It compiles now and works for the most part. Stuck on the if else outputs. For some reason it is only giving me my first print command and not running the rest of the process.

Main class

package week.pkg3.jensen;

import java.util.Scanner;

public class CompensationApp {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Employee emp = new Employee(50000.00, 0.035, 120000, 1.35);

        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
        double annualSales;

        System.out.printf("Please enter your sales for the year:");
        annualSales = input.nextDouble();

        // System.out.printf("Your total salary for the year is $%.2f%n",
        //       emp.getCompensationApp(annualSales));
        emp.potentialTable(annualSales);
    }
}

Employee Class

package week.pkg3.jensen;

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Employee {

    double annualSalary;
    double commission;
    double target;
    double accelerator;

    Employee(double salary, double comm, double targ, double sp) {
        this.annualSalary = salary;
        this.commission = comm;
        this.target = targ;
        this.accelerator = sp;

    }
    /*
    This should verify employee sales meet at least 80% of target to get a commission of 3.5%.
    If the employee sales > target the employee gets a 1.35 bonus to their commission.
    If employee doesn't get a commission return "you need to improve your sales."
    */
    public void getCompensationApp(double sales) {

        System.out.print("For the sales of " + sales);
        System.out.println(":  ");
        if (sales >= (.8 * this.target)) {
            System.out.println("You have earned a commission this year. "
                    + "Your total compensation for the year is " + 
                    (sales * commission + annualSalary));
            System.out.println("\n");
        } else if (sales > this.target) { 
            System.out.println("You have earned a bonus to your commission."
                    + "Your compensations for the year is " + 
                    ((sales * commission) * accelerator) + ((sales * commission)
                            + annualSalary));
            System.out.println("\n");
        } else {
            System.out.println("No commission for 0 sales.\n ");
        }

    }
    /*
    need to figure out how to make a table for this. 
    The application should also display a table of potential total annual 
    compensation that the salesperson could have earned, in $5000 increments 
    above the salesperson's annual sales, until it reaches 50% above the 
    salesperson's annual sales.
    */
    public void potentialTable(double sales) {

        double temp = sales + 0.5 * sales;

        //	System.out.println("temp:   "+temp);
        while (sales <= temp) {
            getCompensationApp(sales);
            sales = sales + 5000;
            //System.out.println(sale);

        }
    }

}

[Carey Brown]

} else if (sales > this.target) { 

You don't want the 'else'.

[Knute Snortum]

Carey Brown wrote:

} else if (sales > this.target) { 

You don't want the 'else'.

Are you sure?  It looks okay to me.

Also, when I entered 100000 as the annual sales, I got several lines of output from 100,000 to 145,000.  What were you expecting?

[Carey Brown]

        if (sales >= A_SMALL_NUMBER) {
        } else if (sales > A_LARGE_NUMBER) { 
        } else {
        }

If you take out the first 'else' then the commission and bonus will work but not the message saying that you don't get any commission.

If you swap A_SMALL_NUMBER and A_LARGE_NUMBER then the 'elses' will work but you'd have to rearrange the bodies of the if() to match.

[Carey Brown]

Better yet, nest one if inside the other.

        if (sales >= A_SMALL_NUMBER) {
            // do something
            if (sales > A_LARGE_NUMBER) { 
                // do another thing
            }
        } else {
            // no sales message
        }

[Liutauras Vilda]

Artemis Ehnis,

Looking to some of the constructs you had come up, to me seems that you've heard about Object Oriented programming. Am I right?

The thing is, that such exercise I think either needs to be solved all in one class with several methods (typical approach at the beginnin), or, if you learned about objects already - properly.
That properly means, not just to create more than one class, but to create classes which conveys exact ideas.

Now you have class Employee. But you also have some methods which are called getCompensationApp() and potentialTable() - none of them make sense to have them in Employee class.
But before I move on with my thoughts, if you could please answer how much you have learned about the objects.

I see you struggle a lot with this fairly simple exercise, and I believe you struggle not because you couldn't understand the logic, but simply because you don't understand how that logic is wired up. And that is because you assigned responsibilities incorrectly, what Employee supposed to know. Who supposed to calculate commision, etc... The success of such project depends pretty much how you design your application - and that is the whole beauty of object-oriented programming.

Which path to go, you need to tell us what kind of significance among other assignments this exercise has. Is it lab homework? Is it tutor marked assignment? Maybe final marked assignment? That way it would be easier to understand what is expected from you with this exercise and how much effort is needed.

[Artemis Ehnis]

@Carey I thought that was wrong. I pulled the else out and now it's working to that point. Now to work on the last piece which is an output table.

@Knute the output at the end is an assignment requirement that after showing what the persons annual compensation is it then returns a while loop showing compensation until the sales reach 50% more than current sales. Example if you sell 100,000 it then posts an output for every 5000 until it reaches 150,000. In this case it is messed up and is outputting over and over like it was the compensation portion not a table of possible.

@Liutauras you are correct. I understand the principals of object oriented languages. I am lost with the "wiring". Every tutorial or instruction I find is great for showing the pieces. They are just really lacking on how they work together. Having a reading issue does nothing when the material you are given is the certification manual not a beginners book. These are lab homework assignments and each week builds off the last. I just really want to know java and the class isn't really teaching, they expect a very moderate return from assignments. I'm working on trying to clean this up and make it not only work, but be correct. I'm also working on the next assignment which requires 2 employees and a comparison with their salaries. As for objects and classes I understand the purpose of a constructor and I only put the potentialTable at the bottom to get the assignment turned in. Now I will fix it in it's own class when there is more time.

[Knute Snortum]

Artemis Ehnis wrote:@Knute the output at the end is an assignment requirement that after showing what the persons annual compensation is it then returns a while loop showing compensation until the sales reach 50% more than current sales. Example if you sell 100,000 it then posts an output for every 5000 until it reaches 150,000. In this case it is messed up and is outputting over and over like it was the compensation portion not a table of possible.

Here's what I get when I run your program:
Please enter your sales for the year:100000 For the sales of 100000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 53500.0 For the sales of 105000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 53675.0 For the sales of 110000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 53850.0 For the sales of 115000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 54025.0 For the sales of 120000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 54200.0 For the sales of 125000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 54375.0 For the sales of 130000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 54550.0 For the sales of 135000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 54725.0 For the sales of 140000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 54900.0 For the sales of 145000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 55075.0 For the sales of 150000.0:   You have earned a commission this year. Your total compensation for the year is 55250.0 What's the problem with this?

[Carey Brown]

Were you looking for something more like this:

Please enter your sales for the year:100000
Salary      Sales       Target      Accel.  Commission  Bonus       Total     
----------  ----------  ----------  ------  ----------  ----------  ----------
 50,000.00   80,000.00  120,000.00    1.35        0.00        0.00   50,000.00
 50,000.00   85,000.00  120,000.00    1.35        0.00        0.00   50,000.00
 50,000.00   90,000.00  120,000.00    1.35        0.00        0.00   50,000.00
 50,000.00   95,000.00  120,000.00    1.35        0.00        0.00   50,000.00
 50,000.00  100,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    3,500.00        0.00   53,500.00
 50,000.00  105,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    3,675.00        0.00   53,675.00
 50,000.00  110,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    3,850.00        0.00   53,850.00
 50,000.00  115,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    4,025.00        0.00   54,025.00
 50,000.00  120,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    4,200.00        0.00   54,200.00
 50,000.00  125,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    4,375.00    5,906.25   60,281.25
 50,000.00  130,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    4,550.00    6,142.50   60,692.50
 50,000.00  135,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    4,725.00    6,378.75   61,103.75
 50,000.00  140,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    4,900.00    6,615.00   61,515.00
 50,000.00  145,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    5,075.00    6,851.25   61,926.25
 50,000.00  150,000.00  120,000.00    1.35    5,250.00    7,087.50   62,337.50

[Artemis Ehnis]

The output should be

"Your annual compensation is x"
that part is correct.. the last piece is a potential so it would be an output of
"If your sales had been "x" you could have earned "y"

Using your example if you sold 100,000 it would output 100,000 + salary = annual salary.
Then go on to give potentials;
if you had sold  "x" you would make "y"
105000   50367.5
110000   53850
.....

We just got into arrays this week so I hadn't tried an arrayTable which is exactly what i wanted, but hadn't learned yet. I would have been happy with just getting the text output right and cutting off the you have earned a commission all together in the outputs after the initial return.
I'm probably not making sense right now sorry.

[Frits Walraven]

Congratulations Artemis Ehnis,

Your question has made it to our Journal  

Have a Cow!