return

[Enkita mody]

What is difference between these statements :

//1
return;

//2
return null;

[James Boswell]

1 is used to return early from a void method. Ugly style IMO.

2 is used to return a null reference from a method that has an object reference return type.

[Enkita mody]

In correct way could i say, first return statement returns void ?

[James Boswell]

Not really as void means there is no return type. So returning void makes no sense.

[Enkita mody]

When we write method definition i.e

public int method1()
{
return 0;
}
//here method1's return type is int that's why we call it returns an int.

public void method2()
{
return;
}

//Same as it doesn't mean that method2's return type is void that's why we could say it returns void.Because it wont be appropriate to say it returns nothing, because it really has type that is void.

[gurpeet singh]

return; it simply means return i.e. return the control back to invoking method. it does not return(value) anything. just pass of control. a method with return type void can include return statement at any point

return null; this can be put in any method with return type of the type Object. it actually does something. it returns null , so say i have something like this

public class Test
{

public void hello()
{

Dog d = new Dog();

d = this.hello1();

}

public Dog hello1(){ return null;} // this will cause d to point to null , which was earlier pointing to Dog object

[Enkita mody]

Okay nice.

[James Boswell]

Like I stated earlier, I think using return on its own is an ugly style and for this example:

public void method1() {
    return;
}

it is redundant as well. Only use return statement when you have something to return to calling code.