Definition of methods

The definition of a method is similar to the definition of a static method that we have already seen, but in the header of the method the static keyword does not appear. This indicates that the method requires an invocation object.

Hence, the definition of a method is constituted by:

header block

• header is the header of the method and has the following form:

  public resultType methodName(formalParameters)
  

  where (as for the static methods)

  • public indicates that the method being defined is accessible from outside the class
  • resultType is the type of the result returned by the method, or void, if the method does not return any result
  • methodName is the name of the method
  • formalParameters is a list of parameter declarations (type and name) separated by commas; each parameter is a variable; the list of parameters may also be empty

• block is the body of the method containing the statements that will be executed when the method is being called; as for static methods, it has the form:

  {
    statements
  }