what does this mean?

[willl smith]

convert code into a method with header:

I just wrote a code to multiply two polynomials together but I dont know what it means to convert it into a method with a header, thanks..

public class MultPoly // tests multiplication of two polynomials

{
public static void main (String[] args)
{

int[] p = {2, 5, 3, 4};
int m = p.length - 1; // degree of p
int[] q = {4, 6, 8};
int n = q.length - 1; // degree of q
int[] r = new int [m + n + 1];// This will store the product.

for (int i = 0; i < p.length; i++)
{ //increments leading coefficient
for (int x=0; x < q.length; x++)
{
r[i + x] += (p[i] * q[x]);
}
}//for

int k;

for (k = 0; k < r.length - 1; k++)
{
System.out.print (r[k] + ", ");
}
System.out.println (r[k] + "."); // prints out final digit of polynomial

}//main

}//class

[Barry Higgins]

I would assume this means to extract the functionality that relates explicitly to the multiplication of polynomials and place that into a function and pass the values as needed to this function.
What you have at the moment is a lump of code that will only calculate for one set of particular values and makes it difficult to reuse the benefits of code already written without rewriting substantial amounts of it.

To get you started the declaration of this would look something like

private getPolynomialFactor(int[] a, int[] b)

With reagrds to the header I don't know what that is .. Java doesn't use header filesperhaps you can get some clarification from whoever assigned you this project!