Methods: Communicating with Objects

When we invoke a method that returns a value, the invocation expression takes on, or is replaced by, the value that is returned. For example, if we execute the statements

the expression game1.getSticks() will take on the value 11 after the getSticks() method is finished executing. At that point, the second statement above can be treated as if expression game1.getSticks() is replaced with the value 11, which is assigned to sticksLeft. In effect, the second statement is equivalent to the following statement:

We can use a value returned by a method call the same way we use a literal value of the same type. It can be assigned to variables, be part of a numerical expression, or be an argument of another method. All of the following statements involve valid calls of methods that return values:

In each statement, the method call can be replaced with the value it returns. Notice that the last statement is valid but does nothing useful. In Java and some other languages like C and C++, methods that return a value can simply be called without making use of the value returned. This may be useful to do if the method changes the state of instance variables or sends a message to another object or an output device. The method getSticks() does nothing but return the value of nSticks, so simply calling the method accomplishes nothing.