Ah I got it! I needed to add another set of parenthesis around the logic of the program.

I also had to move what finalGrade is = to below all of the if statements.

Thanks guys!

That makes sense, I had originally set it to 0 in order to initialize it. But now I have set each variable to show a 'null' value.

If I set it to a null value the code does not run.. It gives me this error "Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException" amongst another 20 lines.

If I leave each variable as.. Integer hwGrade; than the compiler is telling me to initialize each variable.

    private void formMouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {                                  
        // TODO add your handling code here:
      jTextField1.setText("Desired Grade:");  
      jTextField2.setText("HW Grade:");
      jTextField4.setText("Quiz Grade:");
      jTextField3.setText("Midterm Grade:");
    }                                 

    private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                         
        // TODO add your handling code here:  for the button
       Integer desiredGrade = null;
       Integer hwGrade = null;
       Integer quizGrade = null;
       Integer midGrade = null;
       Double finalGrade = null;
       
      
        finalGrade = (( (desiredGrade) - (hwGrade * .4) - (quizGrade *.1) - (midGrade * .2) ));
        
        
        if (!jTextField2.getText().equals("")) {     //desired grade
        desiredGrade = Integer.parseInt(jTextField2.getText());
        }
       
        if (!jTextField1.getText().equals("")) {     // HW Grade
        hwGrade = Integer.parseInt(jTextField1.getText());
        }
        
        if (!jTextField4.getText().equals("")) {    //  Quiz Grade
        quizGrade = Integer.parseInt(jTextField4.getText());
        }      
        
        if (!jTextField3.getText().equals("")) {    //  Quiz Grade
        midGrade = Integer.parseInt(jTextField3.getText());
        }   
       
      
        jTextField5.setText(finalGrade.toString());  // score the following    
        
        //Integer val2 = Integer.parseInt(jTextField1.getText());  // HW grade
        //val3 = Integer.parseInt(jTextField3.getText());  // Quiz grade
        //val4 = Integer.parseInt(jTextField4.getText());  // midterm grade
    }                                        

Ok, I pasted below. When I did have finalGrade set as an Integer and would work only with the input provided for the desiredGrade the program would pass the value of whatever I put into that text field.

Now that it is a double for some reason it is not. I believe the below code is unable to read the text as a double... But if it read whatever text that was typed before as an integer, I do not see why it would not do the same for a Double... I may be totally wrong, just what I've been tinkering with..

jTextField5.setText(finalGrade.toString());

   private void formMouseClicked(java.awt.event.MouseEvent evt) {                                  
        // TODO add your handling code here:
      jTextField1.setText("Desired Grade:");  
      jTextField2.setText("HW Grade:");
      jTextField4.setText("Quiz Grade:");
      jTextField3.setText("Midterm Grade:");
    }                                 

    private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {                                         
        // TODO add your handling code here:  for the button
       Integer desiredGrade = 0;
       Integer hwGrade = 0;
       Integer quizGrade = 0;
       Integer midGrade = 0;
       Double finalGrade;
       
      
        finalGrade = (( (desiredGrade) - (hwGrade * .4) - (quizGrade *.1) - (midGrade * .2) ));
        
        
        if (!jTextField2.getText().equals("")) {     //desired grade
        desiredGrade = Integer.parseInt(jTextField2.getText());
        }
       
        if (!jTextField1.getText().equals("")) {     // HW Grade
        hwGrade = Integer.parseInt(jTextField1.getText());
        }
        
        if (!jTextField4.getText().equals("")) {    //  Quiz Grade
        quizGrade = Integer.parseInt(jTextField4.getText());
        }      
        
        if (!jTextField3.getText().equals("")) {    //  Quiz Grade
        midGrade = Integer.parseInt(jTextField3.getText());
        }   
       
      
        jTextField5.setText(finalGrade.toString());  // score the following    

Ah so I had tried that which allows me to run the code without errors. But... When I put the mock grades in the result every time is 0.0.

So finalGrade comes up as 0.0 no matter what numbers I input in jTextField5

PBL, I am posting here because I am trying to learn. I am not even sure as to why you even replied to my initial topic because it was of 0 help.

I recall another time where I posted on this forum and PBL replied to my topic there as well... The result was the same and you provided no help or insightful guidance/advice.

I would like to thank farrel2k, and Locke for posting though. Everyone else in this community has been very helpful, and I would like to thank you all. Thanks.