The following code exhibits a behavior that doesn't make sense to me... perhaps someone can explain or perhaps a bug?
(running 1.5 in Windows 7.)
What I call "version 1" works OK.  (you can select any .pde or .txt file when prompted and it runs fine.)
If I comment out "version 1" and uncomment "version 2" the pgm doesn't compile -- the mapData array isn't recognized.
So it would appear that within the "else" part of the if statement the mapData array is recognized but outside of it it isn't???


// version 1
void setup()      {
  String loadPath = selectInput("choose any .txt or .pde file");  // Opens file chooser
   if (loadPath == null) {
   println("No file was selected...");
} else {
     String[] mapData = loadStrings(loadPath)  ;
     println("There are " + mapData.length + " lines") ;     // this is how to get length of array
     println("first line is " + mapData[0])  ;
   }                  // in this version print statements are within else path
  
    println("!! pgm exit !!!")  ; 
   
   }
   
// end of version 1   

// version 2

//  void setup()    {
//  String loadPath = selectInput("choose map data file");  // Opens file chooser
//   if (loadPath == null) {
//   println("No file was selected...");
//} else {
//     String[] mapData = loadStrings(loadPath)  ;
//}                                                     //  in this version following 2 statements are out of else path 
//     println("There are " + mapData.length + " lines") ;     // this is how to get length of array
//     println("first line is " + mapData[0])  ;
//     println("!! pgm exit !!!")  ; 
//  }    
// end of version 2