title: Why am I getting a "cannot find symbol" when I compile?
body: <p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>you guys are really fast at answering. I love it. </li>
  <li>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.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Thanks, everyone.</p>
  
  <p>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:</p>
  
  <pre><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));
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>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?</p>