Class Object and Method

Implementing Methods

Methods   1. Are named modules of code   2. May optionally receive one or more parameters (arguments)   3. May optionally return a single value   4. Are associated with either a class or an object of a class. The former are called "class methods" and are the focus of this lesson. The latter are called "instance methods" and will be covered in a later lesson.     Calling a class method . Involves the following general syntax for the call expression: class-name.method-name(arguments)   If the method is defined within the current class, the class name may be omitted and the general syntax for the call expression is: method-name(arguments)     . Can occur anywhere the returned data type makes sense. Methods that return no value are     called in a stand-alone statement. Methods that return a value are called within another     expression.   This method pushes an object, the one passed in as an argument, onto the top of the stack, and returns it.       Like a class, a method has two major parts: 1. method declaration 2. And method body.   The method declaration defines all of the method's attributes, such as access level, return type, name, and arguments, as illustrated here:     The method body is where all the action takes place. It contains the Java instructions that implement the method.     The Method Declaration At minimum, a method declaration has a name and a return type indicating the data type of the value returned by the method:   returnType methodName() { . . . }