Getting around error in c#

[ThatCrazyIrishGuy]

Basically the problem I'm having is getting around the error " Error 11 The name 'playerMonster' does not exist in the current context ". i thought having the else at the end of the block would allow me to get around it but apparently not. code below

            if (monster == "OldDirtyBastard")            {                Monsters.OldDirtyBastard playerMonster = new Monsters.OldDirtyBastard(hero);            }            else if (monster == "DiscoDragon")            {                Monsters.DiscoDragon playerMonster = new Monsters.DiscoDragon(hero);            }            else if (monster == "PirateRobocop")            {                Monsters.PirateRobocop playerMonster = new Monsters.PirateRobocop(hero);            }            else            {                Monsters.SpideryThing playerMonster = new Monsters.SpideryThing(hero);            }

i understand that visual studio thinks that theres a chance playerMonster will never be initialized but I'm stumped as to a good solution without restructuring a lot of my code.

any help would be greatly appreciated, not too worried about how clean the answer is as long as it works

[MikeD]

I imagine you are getting the error after the if blocks.

Unlike some languages (Python is an example I believe) C# variables are scoped. If you define, like you are doing, a variable inside the if block it will not be visible outside. You have to declare the variable outside and assign it in the ifs.

You are probably going to have to use a supertype of the monster instances you are creating and assigning the actual monster to it.

[Stormsys]

As Mike mentioned you cannot access that variable outside the if blocks as they are scoped, however you can declare player monster above the if blocks and set them within, in your example you are using several different classes so they should all conform to an interface for example IMonster or an abstraction eg class Monster.

So if you assume that all your monster types implement IMonster, you can simply do:

IMonster playerMonster = null;

If(...){

playerMonster = new ......

}

//playerMonster is accessible here

(I would use a code block and type it out nicely but on iPad so it's a pain soz:P)