Q&A
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Q: Do all arguments sent to a Java application have to be strings?
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A: Java makes all arguments into strings for storage when an application runs. When you want to use one of these arguments as an integer or some other nonstring type, you have to convert the value. You learn how to do this during Hour 11, "Describing What Your Object Is Like."
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Q: In the movie It's a Wonderful Life, Sam Wainwright cabled Bedford Falls from London authorizing his local office to advance George Bailey up to $25,000 to help him. How much would this money be worth in today's dollars?
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A: Assuming the scene took place on Christmas Eve 1945, Wainwright's offer was equivalent to $285,000 in current dollars.
More inflation-adjusted figures from the 1946 film: The $8,000 Bailey Building and Loan deposit Henry Potter stole is equal to $91,000 today, and the $5,000 loan that William Bailey owed Potter in 1919 is $59,000.
Also in 1919, Bailey clicked a drugstore lighter and wished for a million dollars. Children today must wish for $11.8 million to be equally enriched.
S. Morgan Friedman offers an inflation calculator on the Web at www.westegg.com/inflation. He uses Consumer Price Index statistics from the Historical Statistics of the United States and the Statistical Abstract of the United States.