Arduino Code – Code will not compile

arduino

I am building a type of telegraph with my Arduino and instead of using Morse code I am taking each character and giving it a value of 1-26 (a-z), 27 for a space and 28 for unknown. Then I convert that number to binary. But I keep getting errors. Could someone please help me? Thanks!

int button_0 = 13;
int button_1 = 12;

int out_0 = 11;
int out_1 = 10;

int in_0 = 9;
int in_1 = 8;

int buzzer = 7;

void setup() {

  pinMode(button_0, INPUT);
  pinMode(button_1, INPUT);

  pinMode(out_0, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(out_1, OUTPUT);

  pinMode(in_0, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(in_1, OUTPUT);

  pinMode(buzzer, OUTPUT);

  Serial.begin(9600);

}


void loop() {

  Serial.println("Message to binary: ");
  String input = "Hello World";
  String message = input.toLowerCase();
  String binaryNumber = "";

  for(int i = 0; i <= message.length(); i++) {

    char l = message.charAt(i);
    int letter = 0;

    if (l == 'a') {

      letter = 1;

    } 
    else if (l == 'b') {

      letter = 2;

    } 
    else if (l == 'c') {

      letter = 3;

    } 
    else if (l == 'd') {

      letter = 4;

    } 
    else if (l == 'e') {

      letter = 5;

    } 
    else if (l == 'f') {

      letter = 6;

    } 
    else if (l == 'g') {

      letter = 7;

    } 
    else if (l == 'h') {

      letter = 8;

    } 
    else if (l == 'i') {

      letter = 9;

    } 
    else if (l == 'j') {

      letter = 10;

    } 
    else if (l == 'k') {

      letter = 11;

    } 
    else if (l == 'l') {

      letter = 12;

    } 
    else if (l == 'o') {

      letter = 13;

    } 
    else if (l == 'm') {

      letter = 14;

    } 
    else if (l == 'n') {

      letter = 15;

    } 
    else if (l == 'p') {

      letter = 16;

    } 
    else if (l == 'q') {

      letter = 17;

    } 
    else if (l == 'r') {

      letter = 18;

    } 
    else if (l == 's') {

      letter = 19;

    } 
    else if (l == 't') {

      letter = 20;

    } 
    else if (l == 'u') {

      letter = 21;

    } 
    else if (l == 'v') {

      letter = 22;

    } 
    else if (l == 'w') {

      letter = 23;

    }

    else if (l == 'x') {

      letter = 24;

    } 
    else if (l == 'y') {

      letter = 25;

    } 
    else if (l == 'z') {

      letter = 26;

    } 
    else if (l == ' ') {

      letter = 27;

    } 
    else {

      letter = 28;

    }

    binaryNumber = binaryNumber + String(letter, BIN) + " ";

  }

  Serial.println("Message to binary:\n"+binaryNumber);

}

Here is my error:

binary_telegraph.cpp: In function ‘void loop()’:
binary_telegraph.cpp:37:38: error: conversion from ‘void’ to non-scalar type ‘String’ requested

Best Answer

toLowerCase() function converts the object being called on to lower case. It doesn't return anything. So what you probably want to do is:

String input = "Hello World";
String message = input;
message.toLowerCase();

This explains the error: you put a void, a nothing, in the variable message. This is not an unreasonable error to make, according to the documentation:

Get a lower-case version of a String. As of 1.0, toLowerCase() modifies the string in place rather than returning a new one.

So the toLowerCase() function used to return a lower-cased version of the string. Now it just modifies the string being called on, and not return anything.

Now, at line 37:

for(int i = 0; i <= message.length(); i++) {

You expect message to be a String, as you call the length method. Now, the compiler attempts to convert the void in message to a String, but that's not possible. Therefore, you get an error.

P.S. As a general rule, here's my personal process for debugging these sorts of errors:

  • Look at the line where the error occurs
  • Check the documentation for all the functions used on that line (in this case here)
  • If that doesn't solve it, double-check my assumptions about the language syntax based on the error message.
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