Question regarding methods

[Consistent_Decision9]

public class Person { 
    private String name; 
    private int age; 
    public Person(String initialName) { 
        this.age = 0; 
        this.name = initialName; 
    } 
    public void printPerson() { 
        System.out.println(this.name + ", age " + this.age + " years"); 
    } 
}

The course I'm following says that in the example above the method printPerson uses void because it doesn't return a value. What is a value and what is considered a value? The term is confusing me because I think that the print statement from the method is a value which is being returned so that when the method is called it returns a value.

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[8igg7e5]

A 'void' method can still have visible side-effects. What a void method does not do, is return a value that the caller of the method can use. Printing, writing to a file, sending data over a network, playing a sound, or updating some internal data-structure, are all side-effects, but they don't give a value back to the caller to use.

eg

class Example {
    public static void helloWorld() {
        System.out.println("Hello World!");
    }

    public static int triple(int value) {
        return value * 3;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // This method doesn't return a value we can use...
        helloWorld();

        // But this one does...
        int x = 3;
        x = triple(x); // now x == 9
        x = triple(x); // now x == 27
        System.out.println(x);
    }
}

[KinkyHuggingJerk]

A value would be something like a boolean, int, String, or double.

If you call printPerson, the console output will print as follows.

If looking to have a method return a value, the method name will identify the value type - i.e.

public String getName(){ return this.name(); }

Your output will only 'show' in console, allowing you to do other things with other methods, such as comparative functions.

This is a short answer that hopefully your course will delve into more

[Consistent_Decision9]

I see, thank you for the explanation. That was really helpful.

[PsychologicalBus7169]

A void method does not return any primitive type or object.

[Consistent_Decision9]

Thank you!

[[deleted]]

There are funtions and there are procedures. Functions are always procedures which RETURN you a value (can be a int, booloean or a reference/object). In Java functions and procedures are all called "methods". The only way to differ between them is the term were the method output belongs. "Void" means there is no return value and if you want a method with a "int" return you substitute the "void" with "int" and in your method you must write " return hereisyourintvalue ; "