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I still don't understand when should we use return methods and when should we use void methods? What's the purpose of one and another? I get the syntax difference I just can't understand the purpose of using one instead of another?

Ishan
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  • For example, if you take a List object. The method [`add()`](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/List.html#add(int,%20E)) just add an object to your list, so there is no point for the method to return something. So it's declared as void. But if you look the method [`get()`](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/List.html#get(int)), you expect it to return the objet at this index, so the method is declard with a return type – vincrichaud Mar 15 '19 at 13:03
  • It depends if your method needs to return a value or not. – Henry Mar 15 '19 at 13:03

2 Answers2

0

Some methods have to provide a result. that's when you use a return value. Example would be subtraction, addittion, validation, ...

Some methods just do something but don't have to provide a result. that's when you use void. Example would be logging, sorting, ...

Philipp Sander
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When you do some work and get the result back from the 'some work', define a function and write you business logic to generate result, and return the 'result' back, We use function/method that can return the result.

and when we want to do some work and do not want the result back , we use return type as void

suppose 

public int add(int a,int b){
     return a+b;
}
int sum = add(10,5);
//sum= 15
enter code here
printResult(sum)

The below method is not generating any result, it is just printing the value of sum, hence, declared as void;

public void printResult(int sum){

   System.out.println(""+sum);

}
Ravi Rajput
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