Method signature

[Ramesh Donnipadu]

Does return type of a method included in the method's signature?
Design Patterns by GoF says yes. But Khalid Mughal and few others say return type is not part of method's signature.

[Nathan Pruett]

Ramesh,
It depends what you are talking about --
Technically, yes, the return type of a method is included in it's signature, since it is something that differentiates that method from other methods.

  // different signature... different methods...
  int aMethod( String s )
  double aMethod( String s )
  // Note: this is not legal in Java.

But, in Java ( and C++, and probably all other languages ) return type is usually not included in a method signature because if all that is different in two methods is the return type, Java will not know which method to call.
HTH,
-Nate

[John Wetherbie]

As Nathan said, it depends on the context. If you are looking at it from a language perspective (C++, Java), then the answer is no. If you are talking about interfaces or object interactions then the return type is usually considered part of the signature. This assists in preventing statements like "It returns an int? I'm expecting an array of doubles!" occuring too often.
John