Cannot find symbol?

[Sam S]

I know this should be a simple fix but I can't figure it out. This is my class that generates the factors for a given number. It works until I try to use the return, in which it says cannot find symbol: variable a, even though it has been declared. I bolded the line the error is on. Any help?

import java.util.Scanner;
public class FactorGenerator 
{       
                public static int initialNumber;
 
             public FactorGenerator()
             {
                 for (int a=1; a < initialNumber; a++)
                 {   
                      if(initialNumber%a == 0)
                      {
 
                        System.out.println(a + " ");
                      }
                 }
             }           public static int getFactors()
                         {
                         return (a +"");
                         }                                 }

[Dheeraj Joshi]

variable a is inside the scope of for loop. So it will not be available out side the loop. As you can see you are trying to access the variable in a getter method.

You can use the class variable for this purpose or any other means of data retrieval. But obviously you can not use variable which is not in scope.

Check this link.

Regards
Dheeraj Joshi