You cannot use modifiers on local variables inside a method except final.

Question

Problem:

As a beginner, I have a very basic level question. This might be very nonsense to you guys but I need to know. Why is final the only modifier for local variables in Java? I tried to declare final variables with modifiers like all others but it gives me a compile-time error, you cannot use modifiers on local variables inside a method except final.

I am looking forward to having your explanation.
Thanks.

Answer 1

Problem:

final is the only variable that cannot be modified after its initial declaration, it has nothing to do with access control.

Have a look below:

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        private int a = 5;
        public int b = 10;
        protected int c = 100;
        static int p = 4;  
        final int i = 50;
    }
}

You’ll get the compile-time error for each of those variables I used under my main function. Hence, the local variable doesn’t require any modifiers. So, the only applicable modifier for a local variable is final.

Let’s see another example:

public class Test { 
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    { 
        final int x; 
        System.out.println("Hello!"); 
    } 
} 

The above program will print Hello! from our program. Here we’ve declared a final in x variable but not initialized. That doesn’t affect our program’s compilation.

I hope everything is clear to you now.
Thanks.