# showMessageDialog() function gives an error
**URL:** https://discourse.processing.org/t/showmessagedialog-function-gives-an-error/34332
**Category:** Beginners
**Created:** [December 28, 2021, 9:26am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/showmessagedialog-function-gives-an-error/34332 "2021-12-28T09:26:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BernieLomaxxx](https://discourse.processing.org/u/BernieLomaxxx)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2021, 9:26am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/showmessagedialog-function-gives-an-error/34332/1 "2021-12-28T09:26:13Z")
hello very new to processing, this code is from the book _Processing: An Introduction to Programming_
when I use showMessageDialog after using JOptionPane i get an error saying **"frame cannot be resolved to a variable"**
```auto
import static javax.swing.JOptionPane.*;
String input;
input=showInputDialog("Enter an integer to be squared: ");
int integer;
integer = int(input);
int square;
square = integer*integer;
showMessageDialog(frame,integer+" squared is " + square);
```
---
### Author:  [@glv](https://discourse.processing.org/u/glv)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2021, 2:30pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/showmessagedialog-function-gives-an-error/34332/2 "2021-12-28T14:30:36Z")
Hello,
Here is a working example that replaced _frame_ with _null_:
> [@Open console instead of window](https://discourse.processing.org/t/open-console-instead-of-window/31040/8):
>
> Hello, There is always javax.swing.JOptionPane for simple IO: import javax.swing.JOptionPane; int col; void setup() { } void draw() { background(col); } void keyPressed() { thread("MessageDialog\_thread"); } void MessageDialog\_thread() { String strInp = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null,"Enter a color 0 to 255:"); col = int(strInp); JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, col, "Output", JOptionPane.PLAIN\_MESSAGE); }slight_smile
Adding this to your code will also work:
```auto
import javax.swing.JFrame;
JFrame frame = new JFrame("JOptionPane showMessageDialog example");
```
Insight gleaned from here:
_[Java: JOptionPane showMessageDialog examples (part 1) | alvinalexander.com](https://alvinalexander.com/java/joptionpane-showmessagedialog-examples-1/)_
`:)`
---
### Author:  [@BernieLomaxxx](https://discourse.processing.org/u/BernieLomaxxx)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2021, 8:58pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/showmessagedialog-function-gives-an-error/34332/3 "2021-12-31T20:58:22Z")
Thank you glv, hopefully one day I’ll understand WHY that worked, lol, baby steps!
---
### Author:  [@svan](https://discourse.processing.org/u/svan)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2022, 4:12am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/showmessagedialog-function-gives-an-error/34332/4 "2022-01-02T04:12:27Z")
> [@glv](#):
>
> ```auto
> import javax.swing.JFrame;
> JFrame frame = new JFrame("JOptionPane showMessageDialog example");
>
> ```
Hopefully you also checked that input != null just in case someone hits the ‘Cancel’ button and a null pointer exception is raised.