Question

This might be a really stupid question but what happens to data that is returned from a method? For example, if I have a method that adds two numbers and I tell it to return the sum, how would I access that information from the place where the method was called?

Answer 1

Assuming your question is related with java.

You could assign the whole method to a new variable.

public class Test {
        public static void main(String args[]){
            int value1=2;
            int value2=5;
            int sum=sum(value1,value2);
            System.out.println("The sum is :"+ sum);
        }

        public static int sum(int value1,int value2){
            return value1+value2;   
        }
 }

What is actually happening, is that the method signature sum(value1,value2) holds the result of the 2 numbers summation. There is also another way of writing the code inside the method but the result will be the same.

For example:

public class Test {
         public static void main(String args[]){
            int sum=sum(2,5);
            System.out.println("The sum is :"+ sum);
         }

         public static int sum(int value1,int value2){
               int sum=value1+value2;               
               return sum;  
         }
}

P.S. You could try to use the above samples directly. They will compile and run.