java return

Question

what is return in java??please dont say that it returns the value ???explain with an example

Answer 1

Suppose you're calling a method to perform a task from another method (caller). Does your caller method need to know the result? If yes, then you must return the result from called method. Otherwise you may simply write a void method to perform the task.

public static void multiply (int a, int b) {
System.out.println(a*b);
// no return, caller method won't know the result
}

public static int multiply (int a, int b) {
return a*b;
// the result is passed to the caller method
}

Answer 2

Consider a function, add, it takes 2 parameter x and y.

int add(x,y)
return (x+y);

This function will RETURN x+y
Example if we use it,

a=add(5,4);

Here, x=5,y=4 and add will return 5+4 .Hence the value of a will be 9(BUT it will not be printed on screen unless you give print(a) command)

Answer 3

@Meharban Note* you cannot return an int with a void return type.
so:
int add(..x, ..y){
return x+y;
}

Answer 4

"It does not need to contain a returnstatement, but it may do so. In such a case, areturn statement can be used to branch out of a control flow block and exit the method and is simply used like this: return; If you try to return a value from a method that is declared void , you will get a compiler error."
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/javaOO/returnvalue.html