Formatting: String cannot be converted to String[]

Question

Using the data array, create instances of books and store them in a one-dimensional array of Book, called bookArray. Using the quantity array, walk through the book array and calculate the total charge per book sold. Print in a dialog box the book title, the book isbn, and the total charge for each book. Then, print the grand total of all books sold.

So far I have done this, but I'm having issue with the JOptionPane and formatting.

Error

$ javac BookTest.java
BookTest.java:41: error: incompatible types: String cannot be converted to String[][]
        dataArray +=String.format(" %s, %s ", b.getTitle(), b.getIsbn());
                                 ^
1 error

And the code:

import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

public class BookTest { 
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      String dataArray  [][]=
         {{ "Fiction", "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter", "Grahame-Smith", "Wiley", "NY", "978-0446563079", "13.99", "222"},
          {"Fiction", "Frankenstein", "Shelley", "Prescott", "GA", "978-0486282114", "7.99", "321"},
          {"NonFiction", "Life of Kennedy", "Jones", "Pearson", "MT", "758-29304566", "12.90", "biography"},
          {"Fiction", "Dracula", "Stoker", "Addison", "CA", "978-0486411095","5.99", "145"},
          {"Fiction", "Curse of the Wolfman", "Hageman", "Wesley", "MA", "B00381AKHG", "10.59", "876"},
          {"NonFiction", "How to Pass Java", "Willis", "Wiley"," NY", "444-395869790", "1.99", "technology"},
          {"Fiction", "The Mummy", "Rice", "Addision", "CA", "978-0345369949", "7.99", "954"},
          {"NonFiction", "History of Texas", "Smith", "Prescott", "CA", "123-683947687", "9.75", "history"}
         };

      Book bookArray[] = new Book [8];

      for (int i = 0; i < bookArray.length; i++) {
         if (dataArray[i][0].equals("Fiction")) {
            Publisher p = new Publisher(dataArray[i][3], dataArray[i][4]);
            bookArray[i] = new Fiction(dataArray[i][1], dataArray[i][2], dataArray[i][5],
               p, Double.parseDouble(dataArray[i][6]), dataArray[i][7]);
         } else {
            Publisher p = new Publisher(dataArray[i][3], dataArray[i][4]);
            bookArray[i] = new NonFiction(dataArray[i][1], dataArray[i][2], dataArray[i][5],
               p, Double.parseDouble(dataArray[i][6]), dataArray[i][7]);
         }
      }

      for (Book b:bookArray) {
        dataArray +=String.format(" %s, %s ", b.getTitle(), b.getIsbn());
        JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, dataArray);     
      }
   }        
}

Answer 1

Don't use your dataArray to output things in the message box. Use a String variable.

for (Book b : bookArray) {
    String bookOutput = String.format(" %s, %s ", b.getTitle(), b.getIsbn());
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, bookOutput);
}

Even better, add a toString() to your Book class that returns String.format(" %s, %s ", getTitle(), getIsbn()) and then do your loop like this:

for (Book b : bookArray) {
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, b.toString());
}

However, if you want to output the price for each book and then the total, your loop will look more like this:

double totalPrice = 0.0;
for (int i = 0; i < bookArray.length; i++) { //can't use foreach because of use of parallel arrays bookArray & quantityArray
    Book b = bookArray[i];
    double price = b.getPrice() * quantityArray[i];
    totalPrice += price;
    String bookStr = String.format(" %s, %s %s", b.getTitle(), b.getIsbn(), 
        DecimalFormat.getCurrencyInstance().format(price));
    JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, bookStr);
}
String totalStr = String.format("Total Charge: %s", 
    DecimalFormat.getCurrencyInstance().format(totalPrice)));
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, totalStr);