I've just attempted to move the scanner initialization to the main and i get more runtime errors. also if i did contruct an instance of program1 would that solve my issues. I really would like to get this right and understand it as all my projects from here on are going to require me to manipulate data from a single file as input for the methods which will all be called from the the main(). This is what the instructor requires.

Whether or not its best practice is a totally different topic.

Thanks guys