Statement in Try statement, method that has two return values ?

[WeiJie Lim]

public class Excep1
				{
				  static Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
				  public static void main(String[] args)
				  {
				    System.out.print("Enter an integer: ");
				    int i = GetAnInteger();
				    System.out.println("You entered " + i);
				  }
				  public static int GetAnInteger()
				  {
				    while (true)
				    {
				      try
				      {
				        return sc.nextInt();
                                        System.out.println("11");  // the line causing the error
				      }
				      catch (InputMismatchException e)
				      {
				        sc.next();
				        System.out.println("That's not "
				          + "an integer. Try again. ");
                                        e.printStackTrace(System.out);
				      }
				    }
				  }
				}

System.out.println("11"); is causing error of "unreachable statement" because a method can only have one statement that returns something ? I want to correct my understanding on this.

In this case, there are two statements that return something, return sc.nextInt(); and System.out.println("11"); .

Thanks in advance.

[Jesper de Jong]

WeiJie Lim wrote:System.out.println("11"); is causing error of "unreachable statement" because a method can only have one statement that returns something ?

No. The System.out.println statement is after the return statement, so that it will never be executed. The compiler detects this and gives you an error.

WeiJie Lim wrote:In this case, there are two statements that return something, return sc.nextInt(); and System.out.println("11"); .

No. The System.out.println statement prints something on the console, but it is not a statement that returns a value from the method. Only with the "return" keyword you can return a value from a method.

Printing something on the console and returning a value from a method are two totally different things. Why do you think that a System.out.println method returns anything from a method?

[WeiJie Lim]

Jesper de Jong wrote:
No. The System.out.println statement is after the return statement, so that it will never be executed. The compiler detects this and gives you an error.

No. The System.out.println statement prints something on the console, but it is not a statement that returns a value from the method. Only with the "return" keyword you can return a value from a method.

Printing something on the console and returning a value from a method are two totally different things. Why do you think that a System.out.println method returns anything from a method?

Oh noted, didn't know anything after the return statement is not executed =) . Thanks for this.

Oops, I guess my understanding of return statements is flawed. I assumed println prints out a value, so it is counted under returning a value .

[fred rosenberger]

'return sc.nextInt();' means "leave the method RIGHT NOW, and send back the value we get from sc.nextInt()".

There are some subtleties with try/catch/finally statements, but within a given block, return immediately leaves that block.

[Campbell Ritchie]

As you will see here, a lot of people believe a return statement should be the last statement in the method and should appear nowhere else.

A lot of people disagree with that, but you can see how much confusion that multiple return has caused.