What is Error" n does not name a type" ?

@barrie

That line is not within the scope of a function, so the compiler is saying that t has no idea what n is. You'll need to move the assignment within one of the methods like setup() { ... } or loop() {...} etc. Then the compiler will recognize n as the int as defined.

To expand on what @barrie said, the declaration of n, if you intend it to be global, should be before setup.  As the code currently exists, steup cannot reference n since it has not been declared.  C/C++ creates definitions and allocates variables in the order in which they are encountered.

@codeslinger 

 I don't think that's the problem here. This example places the definition before setup() as you suggest and the compiler still pukes on the assignment. 

int n=1;

void setup() {
    // put your setup code here, to run once:
}

    n=2;

void loop() {
    // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

}

@will 

The attachment was to sort of replicate the problem in my sketch. I declared int n before "setup" in my sketch because I thought that was the birth place of global variables. I tried declaring it in setup but still got the error. @codeslinger are you saying that my declaration above setup should be OK? If so I'll dig deeper and post my sketch if I can't figure it out.

@will are you suggesting I am not doing something silly? I hope so! 🤔 

@barrie 

This works ... 

int n=1;

void setup() {
    // put your setup code here, to run once:
    n = 2;
}

void loop() {
    // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

}

And note that it's very unlikely that we can help you find a solution if you don't give us an accurate picture of what you're doing.

@will Thanks again. That solved the problem. 😀 

@barrie 

Good, now back to the salt mines !

@will By the way your avatar is remarkably like a character in a small animated video I made a long time ago. A funny spoof about advertising. I would show it here but it wouldn't be appropriate.

@barrie 

I chose this one because I always wanted to use something very like it in an advertisement with a slogan like "You'll be stunned by our customer satisfaction level" or something of that ilk.

Also, I have come very late to electronics and so this avatar most closely matches my level of capability and my approach to problem solving 🙂

@will I screwed up and referenced the wrong person as the responder before.  i should have said that I was expanding on your reply.  I was trying to point out that, in addition to doing as you suggested and moving the assignment into a function, that the declaration should of n needs to be made before any functions referencing it. The source of the confusion that @barrie encountered is that the compiler can be rather obtuse with some error messages.  This is just one such example.

@codeslinger 

Not quite. In @barrie's original post, the definition of n DOES precede the use of n, so that is not the problem. The problem is the assignment occurs outside of the scope of any function of subroutine.