What is the difference between these to methods?

Question

public void firstMethod(){
     int x = 5;
}and
public int secondMethod(){
     int x = 5;
     return x;
}I just don't see the difference. I guess I am still a little confused on what the return statement does.

Answer 1

The return statement just alows me to use the method as a type of variable, right?The proper explanation is that expressions can evaluate to either l-values or r-values, where an l-value is something to which you can assign an r-value. So in the statement "x = x + 1;", the first x evaluates to an l-value (which you can normally think of as the location of x - doesn't make so much sense when you're thinking in terms of stack machines like the JVM), and the second x evaluates to an r-value (the value currently stored in x), as does the expression "x + 1". If you have a method returning type T, you can substitute a call to that method anywhere you have an expression which evaluates to an r-value of type T.
From a practical point of view, you don't need return statements, but by not using them you constrain yourself to either having very large methods or using lots of global variables.