Thursday 2/19/04

project questions

1. anatomy of a method

• every method begins with a
• this specifies that the code in the method is executed only when the method is
• a method may be defined
• if it is a class method, only the method name is required to call it
• Banking.java is a for Account.java
• that is, it doesn't do anything particularly useful itself except

2. return

• the return type in a method header can be a
• void is used when a method
• methods that have a must have a
• a return statement uses the reserved word return followed by an expression that dictates the value to be returned
• this returned value must be with the return type
• note that the return value can be ignored by the calling program

3. parameters

• the parameter list in the header of a method specifies

• at the time the method is declared these parameters are called
• at the time a method is invoked the values passed to the method by the calling program are called
• if there are no parameters, then the method is invoked with an empty set of parentheses
• when calling a method, the actual parameters must appear in the same order as the formal parameters
• the only the way complier can enforce this is by

4. constructors

• constructors are methods that
• the are unique methods in that
• constructors generally initialize or instantiate the instance variables
• sometimes constructors need parameters to do this

5. local data

• variable declared is called a local variable
• it's scope is only
• methods can see
• but class methods can not see local variables that belong to