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Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #18730

Re: can't return value

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bilsch wrote in his first posting:
> I want to get variable lastName for use in the main method (the whole
> program isn't shown). I want to return it from inside the IF block within
> the FOR loop.

[snipped various replies]

On 9/13/12 bilsch wrote:
> Based on what Jukka said I got it to work without using the for loop.
> OK. Now I see what Jukka meant by initializing to NULL.  But I don't
> know what exception to throw for 'misssing return statement'.  Also I
> don't know how to put it in.

What Jukka probably meant to say is that you could throw an exception in 
case your method could not extract a surname from the passed string. 
Like so:


public static String lastName(String wholeName){

      for (int i = 0; i < wholeName.length(); i++){
          if (wholeName.charAt(i)== ' '){
             return wholeName.substring(i + 1);
          }
      }
      // If we reach this line, the parameter
      // wholeName cannot have contained a
      // blank, so we cannot extract the last
      // name.
      throw new exception ("cannot find lastname");
}

Alternatively, your method can simply return null:

public static String lastName(String wholeName){

      for (int i = 0; i < wholeName.length(); i++){
          if (wholeName.charAt(i)== ' '){
             return wholeName.substring(i + 1);
          }
      }
      // If we reach this line, the parameter
      // wholeName cannot have contained a
      // blank, so we cannot extract the last
      // name.
      return null;
}


Which of these variants suits you better depends on how you want to use 
lastName. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Regards,
Stuart

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Thread

can't return value "bilsch" <king621@comcast.net> - 2012-09-12 00:36 -0700
  Re: can't return value Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-09-12 07:11 -0400
    Re: can't return value bilsch <bilsch01@gmail.com> - 2012-09-12 22:15 -0700
      Re: can't return value Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-09-13 08:53 -0400
  Re: can't return value Jukka Lahtinen <jtfjdehf@hotmail.com.invalid> - 2012-09-12 15:32 +0300
    Re: can't return value bilsch <bilsch01@gmail.com> - 2012-09-12 22:37 -0700
      Re: can't return value Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-09-12 23:17 -0700
        Re: can't return value markspace <-@.> - 2012-09-13 01:11 -0700
          Re: can't return value Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-09-13 10:53 -0700
      Re: can't return value Stuart <DerTopper@web.de> - 2012-09-13 09:45 +0200
        Re: can't return value "bilsch" <king621@comcast.net> - 2012-09-13 03:55 -0700
        Re: can't return value Jukka Lahtinen <jtfjdehf@hotmail.com.invalid> - 2012-09-13 15:06 +0300
          Re: can't return value Stuart <DerTopper@web.de> - 2012-09-13 20:53 +0200
  Re: can't return value Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-09-12 20:54 -0700

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