return value from main

[deepti krishna]

Hello all
am a beginner in java

my doubts are as below

1.. where does the main return the value to?
2... can we capture the value returned by main? if yes how do we do it? can someone provide with an example?

Thanks in advance

[Sagar Rohankar]

deepti krishna wrote:1.. where does the main return the value to?

main method doesn't return any value, because its return type is void

public static void main(String a[]){
..
}

deepti krishna wrote:2... can we capture the value returned by main? if yes how do we do it? can someone provide with an example?

I don't think we can capture the returned value(??) from main, If there is any way, then need to move this post to JiG

[Harsh Pensi]

 class A { 
	public static void main(String[] args){
		int ifrommain = main("Hello");
	}
	public static int main(String arg) {   
		return 1;
	}   
}   

The main method can be overloaded.

[Sagar Rohankar]

I'm afraid if that overloaded main is understood by JVM ;)

[Jesper de Jong]

Murtuza Arzai wrote:The main method can be overloaded.

It can be overloaded, because it's just a normal method just like any other method. But you can't make the JVM start the execution of your program with an overloaded version of main() - it will always look for a main() method that is public, static, void, and takes a String[] as input.

As already said, the normal main method does not return any value. You can however end your program by calling System.exit(int). If you call your Java program from a Windows BAT file or Unix shell script, then you can get the value that you pass to System.exit in the BAT file or script.

[Sagar Rohankar]

Jesper Young wrote:You can however end your program by calling System.exit(int). If you call your Java program from a Windows BAT file or Unix shell script, then you can get the value that you pass to System.exit in the BAT file or script.

I didn't know that, thanks Jasper. System.exit(int) - an abrupt exit return