Missing return statement within if for while

Question

I have a question regarding return statements used within if   while   or for   statements  As you can see in the following method  it is expecting that I return a String value  The problem is that if I were to use a return statement within my if statement block  the compiler would return the error missing return statement   public String myMethod         if condition               return x            Of course I could change the method header to void and use System out println instead of return  But is this the right way to do it  am i missing something   Any help is highly appreciated

User · Answer

That is illegal syntax  It is not an optional thing for you to return a variable  You MUST return a variable of the type you specify in your method   public String myMethod         if condition               return x            You are effectively saying  I promise any class can use this method public  and I promise it will always return a String String    Then you are saying IF my condition is true I will return x  Well that is too bad  there is no IF in your promise  You promised that myMethod will ALWAYS return a String  Even if your condition is ALWAYS true the compiler has to assume that there is a possibility of it being false  Therefore you always need to put a return at the end of your non-void method outside of any conditions JUST IN CASE all of your conditions fail   public String myMethod         if condition               return x          return       or whatever the default behavior will be if all of your conditions fail to return

User · Answer

If you put return statement in if  while or for statement then it may or may not return value  If it will not go inside these statement then also that method should return some value   that could be null   To ensure that  compiler will force  you to write this return statement which is after if  while or for   But if you write if   else block and each one of them is having return in it then compiler knows that either if or else will get execute and method will return a value  So this time compiler will not force you   if condition     return    else    return

User · Answer

You have to add a return statement if the condition is false   public String myMethod         if condition            return x             if condition is false you HAVE TO return a string     you could return a string  a empty string or null     return otherCondition        FYI   Oracle docs for return statement

User · Answer

This will return the string only if the condition is true   public String myMethod         if condition               return x            else        return

User · Answer

Any how myMethod   should return a String value  what if your condition is false is myMethod return anything  ans is no so you  need to define return null or some string value in false condition  public String myMethod         boolean c true      if  conditions            return  d             return null   or some other string value

User · Answer

That s because the function needs to return a value  Imagine what happens if you execute myMethod   and it doesn t go into if condition  what would your function returns  The compiler needs to know what to return in every possible execution of your function  Checking Java documentation      Definition  If a method declaration has a return type then there must   be a return statement at the end of the method  If the return   statement is not there the missing return statement error is thrown       This error is also thrown if the method does not have a return type   and has not been declared using void  i e   it was mistakenly   omitted     You can do to solve your problem   public String myMethod         String result   null      if condition               result   x            return result

User · Answer

Try with  as if if condition returns false  so it will return empty otherwise nothing to return   public String myMethod         if condition               return x        return        Because the compiler doesn t know if any of those if blocks will ever be reached  so it s giving you an error

[java] "Missing return statement" within if / for / while

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