Why am I getting a "cannot find symbol" when I compile?

Question

EDIT:

1. you guys are really fast at answering. I love it.
2. I can not believe I missed the fact that I tried instantiating the NumberFormat class meanwhile when I previously used it, I didn't do that. I stared at this code for so long too. Looks like I have a lot to learn when it comes to paying close attention to detail.

Thanks, everyone.

I'm using the NumberFormat class (or method, I'm still getting used to the terminology), but when I compile the program I get a "cannot find symbol" pointing at the decimal in "NumberFormat.getPercentInstance();" but I don't underhand why. Here's the code:

import java.util.Scanner; 
import java.text.NumberFormat;

public class StudentAverages
{
//----------------------------------------------------------------  
// Reads a grade from the user and prints averages accordingly. 
//----------------------------------------------------------------  
public static void main (String [] args)
{
    Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
    NumberFormat fmt = new NumberFormat.getPercentInstance();

    System.out.print("Enter the name of the first student: ");
    String name1 = scan.nextLine();

    int lab1, lab2, lab3, min = 0;

    System.out.print("Enter the lab assignment grades of "+name1+": ");
    lab1 = scan.nextInt();
    lab2 = scan.nextInt();
    lab3 = scan.nextInt();

    System.out.print("Enter the project grades of "+name1+": ");
    int proj1 = scan.nextInt();
    int proj2 = scan.nextInt();

    System.out.print("Enter the midterm grade of "+name1+ ": ");
    double mid1 = scan.nextDouble();

    System.out.print("Enter the final grade of "+name1+": ");
    double fin1 = scan.nextDouble(); // fin used so as to not confuse with CONSTANT final

    double avgLab1 = (lab1 + lab2 + lab3) / 3;
    double avgProj1 = (proj1 + proj2) / 2;

    double grade1 = (25 * avgLab1 + 40 * avgProj1 + 15 * mid1 + 20 * fin1) / 10000;

    System.out.println();

    System.out.println("Student's name " + name1);
    System.out.println("Lab average for "+name1+": " + avgLab1);
    System.out.println("Project average for "+name1+": " + avgProj1);
    System.out.println("Total grade for "+name1+": " + fmt.format(grade1));

New at coding. Thanks for any help. I cross referenced the syntax from the book I'm using, and it checks out. I even checked previous code, and I did nothing differently, or at least nothing that I can see. So why would the compiler say it cannot find the symbol?

Answer 1

Instead of:

NumberFormat fmt = new NumberFormat.getPercentInstance();

it should be:

NumberFormat fmt = NumberFormat.getPercentInstance();

because, you want to call the static method getPercentInstance from class NumberFormat.

Furthermore (as Pshemo said), the NumberFormat class is abstract, so you cannot instantiate it with the new keyword.