Thread: Return statement.

Hello everyone.

I am working on an assignment involving the return statement. What I have to do is create a private variable called newSeconds and make methods to change it's value only if it is greater than sixty and less than one hundred.

As you can see in the HR11Virus(Below) code I used the return and the System.out.println statements to show the value of the newSeconds variable. I originally used the return statement; that didn't print the value of the newSeconds variable so I used the System.out.println statement. It worked, so all is well.

But it made me wonder why the return statement didn't work. And secondly what are the differences of the return and System.out.println statements. From what I know System.out.print does everything the return statement does and more, if so why is there the return statement? And if the return statement's job is the return the value of a variable, why didn't it return the value of newSeconds?

public class HR11Virus {
    //Hour eleven, workshop one.
    private int newSeconds = 60;
 
    int getSeconds(int newValue){
        if (newValue > 60){
            newSeconds = newValue;
            System.out.println(newSeconds + " ");
        }
         return newSeconds;
    }
 
}

Here is the program I used to test it.

class test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        HR11Virus virus = new HR11Virus();
        virus.getSeconds(78);
    }
}

Hope I was clear enough.

Thanks.
-Mel

So if I used a println statement and the method doesn't have a return statement, I wont be able to print anything?

Try it and see what happens? Be sure to report back what happens.

class JavaObject {
 
    public static int factorial(int x) {
        int result = 1;
        for(int i = 1; i <= x; ++i) {
            result *= i;
        }
        return result;
    }
 
}

class JavaClass {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
 
        JavaObject test = new JavaObject();
 
        int y = test.factorial(5) + test.factorial(3);
        System.out.println("y = " + y);
 
    }
}

Output:
y = 126
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 1 second)


Must be doing something wrong. :/

Why do you say that. Y = 126 is the correct output.

That actually is the output I got.

class JavaClass {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
 
        int y = JavaObject.factorial(5) + JavaObject.factorial(3);
        System.out.println("y = " + y);
 
    }
}

run:
y = 126
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 0 seconds)


That is the output Netbeans shows.

So what is your problem? The factorial of 5 is 120. The factorial of 3 is 6. 120 + 6 = 126. The output is correct. If there is something you do not understand then ask a question. At the moment we have no idea what you are trying to say.

Just to clarify, the 'return' statement allows a method to pass a value back to the code it was called from. The 'System.out.println' statement allows you to print a line of text to the console. The two statements have nothing in common.

Originally Posted by Melawe

I am working on an assignment involving the return statement. What I have to do is create a private variable called newSeconds and make methods to change it's value only if it is greater than sixty and less than one hundred.

As you can see in the HR11Virus(Below) code I used the return and the System.out.println statements to show the value of the newSeconds variable. I originally used the return statement; that didn't print the value of the newSeconds variable so I used the System.out.println statement. It worked, so all is well.

But it made me wonder why the return statement didn't work. And secondly what are the differences of the return and System.out.println statements. From what I know System.out.print does everything the return statement does and more, if so why is there the return statement? And if the return statement's job is the return the value of a variable, why didn't it return the value of newSeconds?

public class HR11Virus {
    //Hour eleven, workshop one.
    private int newSeconds = 60;
 
    int getSeconds(int newValue){
        if (newValue > 60){
            newSeconds = newValue;
            System.out.println(newSeconds + " ");
        }
         return newSeconds;
    }
 
}

Here is the program I used to test it.

class test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        HR11Virus virus = new HR11Virus();
        virus.getSeconds(78);
    }
}

Hope I was clear enough.

Thanks.
-Mel

getting Back on the topic, yes your code is fine for your return statement however, you need to do something with this section.

  virus.getSeconds(78);

you need to set the returning variable to something:: like:

int results = virus.getSeconds(78);
System.out.println("my results are: " + results);

My bad misunderstood the code. I still don't understand what exactly return's job really is.

One simple thing a return statement allows you to do in a program is to put a method call on the right hand side of an assignment statement.

variable = aMethod(args); // here the method aMethod() returns a value that is assigned to variable.

...

variabl2 = aMethod(moreArgs); // aMethod() called with different args can return a different value

There is no relationship between returning a value and printing a value. See post #11

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help!