A method returns to the code that invoked it when it

• completes all the statements in the method,
• reaches a return statement, or
• throws an exception (covered later),

whichever occurs first.

You declare a method’s return type in its method declaration. Within the body of the method, you use the return statement to return the value.

Any method declared void doesn’t return a value. It does not need to contain a return statement, but it may do so. In such a case, a return 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.

Any method that is not declared void must contain a return statement with a corresponding return value, like this:

 return returnValue;

The data type of the return value must match the method’s declared return type; you can’t return an integer value from a method declared to return a boolean.

The getArea() method in the Rectangle Rectangle class that was discussed in the sections on objects returns an integer:

    // a method for computing the area of the rectangle    public int getArea() {        return width * height;    }

This method returns the integer that the expression width*height evaluates to.

The area method returns a primitive type. A method can also return a reference type. For example, in a program to manipulate Bicycle objects, we might have a method like this:

public Bicycle seeWhosFastest(Bicycle myBike, Bicycle yourBike, Environment env) {  Bicycle fastest;  // code to calculate which bike is faster, given  // each bike’s gear and cadence and given   // the environment (terrain and wind)  return fastest;}