Question: I'm a Java newbie, but I am an experienced programmer (Assembler, COBOL, C/C++, REXX) 

I can't understand why the compiler is giving me the following:

```
[loading java\lang\Throwable.class(java\lang:Throwable.class)]
src\LU62XnsCvr.java:265: incompatible types
found   : java.lang.String
required: java.lang.StringBuffer

```

Code:

```
message_data = "LU62XCE0513: Request File I/O Exception =" ;

```

I've defined `message_data` as:

```
static StringBuffer message_data = new StringBuffer();

```

So why can't I place a simple literal `String` into the `StringBuffer` labeled `message_data` ? 
I mean BOTH are of type `String` .. right ??

Answer: 
Both objects may represent a string but they are thechnically not *both of type string*. You can create a stringbuffer from a string directly via `new StringBuffer(message_data)`.
Just call `message_data.toString()` when passing the message to the `Throwable`