How to fix "variable might not have been initialized" error in Java

This error occurs when you are trying to use a local variable without initializing it. You won't get this error if you use a uninitialized class or instance variable because they are initialized with their default value e.g. Reference types are initialized with null and integer types are initialized with zero, but if you try to use an uninitialized local variable in Java, you will get this error. This is because Java has the rule to initialize the local variable before accessing or using them and this is checked at compile time. If compiler believes that a local variable might not have been initialized before the next statement which is using it, you get this error. You will not get this error if you just declare the local variable but will not use it.

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