Section-7

Method in Java

Eng. Abdirisak Abdalla

JacfuuTechno
Department of computer science
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Method in Java
 In general, a method is a way to perform some
task. Similarly, the method in Java is a collection of
instructions that performs a specific task.
 It provides the reusability of code.
 We can also easily modify code using methods.
 In this section, we will learn what is a method in
Java, types of methods, method declaration,
and how to call a method in Java.

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What is a method in Java?
 A method is a block of code or collection of
statements or a set of code grouped together to
perform a certain task or operation.
 It is used to achieve the reusability of code.
 We write a method once and use it many times.
 We do not require to write code again and again.

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 It also provides the easy modification and
readability of code, just by adding or removing a
chunk of code.
 The method is executed only when we call or invoke
it.
 The most important method in Java is the main()
method.

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Method Declaration
 The method declaration provides information about
method attributes, such as visibility, return-type,
name, and arguments.
 It has six components that are known as method
header, as we have shown in the following figure.

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 Method Signature: Every method has a method
signature.
 It is a part of the method declaration. It includes the
method name and parameter list.
 Access Specifier: Access specifier or modifier is the
access type of the method.
 It specifies the visibility of the method.
 Java provides four types of access specifier:

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 Public: The method is accessible by all classes when we
use public specifier in our application.
 Private: When we use a private access specifier, the
method is accessible only in the classes in which it is
defined.
 Protected: When we use protected access specifier, the
method is accessible within the same package or
subclasses in a different package.
 Default: When we do not use any access specifier in the
method declaration, Java uses default access specifier by
default. It is visible only from the same package only.
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 Return Type: Return type is a data type that the
method returns.
 It may have a primitive data type, object, collection, void,
etc. If the method does not return anything, we use void
keyword.
 Method Name: It is a unique name that is used to
define the name of a method.
 It must be corresponding to the functionality of the
method. Suppose, if we are creating a method for
subtraction of two numbers, the method name must be
subtraction(). A method is invoked by its name.
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 Parameter List: It is the list of parameters
separated by a comma and enclosed in the pair of
parentheses.
 It contains the data type and variable name.
 If the method has no parameter, left the parentheses
blank.
 Method Body: It is a part of the method
declaration. It contains all the actions to be
performed.
 It is enclosed within the pair of curly braces
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Naming a Method
 While defining a method, remember that the method
name must be a verb and start with a lowercase
letter.
 If the method name has more than two words, the
first name must be a verb followed by adjective or
noun.
 In the multi-word method name, the first letter of
each word must be in uppercase except the first
word.
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Example:
 Single-word method name:
 Eg sum(), area()
 Multi-word method name:
 Eg areaOfCircle(), stringComparision()
 It is also possible that a method has the same name
as another method name in the same class, it is
known as method overloading.

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Types of Method
 There are two types of methods in Java:

Predefined Method
User-defined Method

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Predefined Method
 In Java, predefined methods are the method that is
already defined in the Java class libraries is known
as predefined methods.
 It is also known as the standard library method
or built-in method.
 We can directly use these methods just by calling
them in the program at any point.
 Some pre-defined methods are length(), equals(),
compareTo(), sqrt(), etc.
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 When we call any of the predefined methods in our
program, a series of codes related to the
corresponding method runs in the background that is
already stored in the library.
 Each and every predefined method is defined inside
a class.
 Such as print() method is defined in the
java.io.PrintStream class.
 It prints the statement that we write inside the
method. For example, print("Java"), it prints Java
on the console.
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 In the above example, we have used three
predefined methods main(), print(), and max().
 We have used these methods directly without
declaration because they are predefined.
 The print() method is a method of PrintStream
class that prints the result on the console.
 The max() method is a method of the Math class
that returns the greater of two numbers.

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User-defined Method
 The method written by the user or programmer is
known as a user-defined method.
 These methods are modified according to the
requirement.

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Static Method
 A method that has static keyword is known as static
method.
 In other words, a method that belongs to a class
rather than an instance of a class is known as a
static method.
 We can also create a static method by using the
keyword static before the method name.

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 The main advantage of a static method is that we
can call it without creating an object.
 It can access static data members and also change
the value of it.
 It is used to create an instance method.
 It is invoked by using the class name.
 The best example of a static method is the main()
method.

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Instance Method
 The method of the class is known as an instance
method.
 It is a non-static method defined in the class.
 Before calling or invoking the instance method, it is
necessary to create an object of its class.

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Any Question?

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Thank You

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