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Can a constructor return?

 
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Can a constructor return? I did, but i am not sure whether it is treated as a constructor or a member method.

public class finalTest {

int finalTest() {
return 1;
}

String finalTest(String name) {
return "hello";
}

public static void main( String args[] ) {
finalTest f = new finalTest();
System.out.println(f.finalTest());
System.out.println(f.finalTest("test"));
}
}

Output
------
1
hello
 
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Constructors can never return a value; the methods you provided are NOT considered constructors because they return int and String respectively.

I modified your code a little bit, now notice that if the method finalTest() on line 1 was a constructor then it will output �Hello World� upon the creation of the object on line 2. But it doesn�t, this means that it is treated as a method and not as a constructor.


[ July 26, 2004: Message edited by: Vicken Karaoghlanian ]
 
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Hi!

A constructor cannot have a return type. That rule stands even if Java were to be spelt as 'avaj'.

If, for whatever reason, you have a method that matches the name of the class with a return type specified, Java will consider it to be a normal method (I'd thank Java's engineers to be so kind).

Looking into your code, you will see that 1 is printed when you did a



and not when you did a



Hope that helps!!!


Cheers
 
Kitty Dayal
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Thanks a lot,

I got it nailed in.
 
Kitty Dayal
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What about this?

public class finalTest {

void finalTest() {
System.out.println( "Hello Constructor" );
}

public static void main( String args[] ) {
System.out.println( new finalTest() );
}

}

It prints
finalTest@108786b

Is it a default constructor defined and why did it print junk

Thanks.
 
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void finalTest() {
System.out.println( "Hello Constructor" );
}



This is not a constructor. Constructors don't have any return type. If you put a return type then it becomes a normal method. So the the code above is a method. Since this class dosn't have a default constructor, the compiler creates a default constructor.

System.out.println( new finalTest() );


Here you have put new keyword inside a print method. You have to remember that when you create an object it returns a reference to that object. In this case you have given it in a print method, so it prints the referrence variable. So what appears as junk is actually a referrence.

Hope its clear

Sanyev
 
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