It's often useful to have a method return a value to the class that
called it. This is accomplished by the return
keyword
at the end of a method and by declaring the data type that is
returned by the method at the beginning of the method.
For example, the following getLicensePlate()
method
returns the current value of the licensePlate
field in
the Car
class.
String getLicensePlate() {
return this.licensePlate;
}
A method like this that merely returns the value of an object's field or property is called a getter or accessor method.
The signature String getLicensePlate()
indicates
that getLicensePlate()
returns a value of type
String
and takes no arguments. Inside the method the
line
return this.licensePlate;
returns the String
contained in the
licensePlate
field to whoever called this method. It is
important that the type of value returned by the return statement
match the type declared in the method signature. If it does not,
the compiler will complain.