Need Help Solving Java "Method Must Return a Result of Type Int" Error

[Cowtipper]

This is really making me mad. I keep getting a "this method must return a result of type int" error message, but obviously I have a return statement trying to return an int. This is a program that is supposed to perform a sequential search for a string index.



public static int nameSearch(String[] inOrder, String searchedFor)
{
for (int i = 0; i < inOrder.length; i++)
{
if (searchedFor == inOrder)
{
return i;
}
else if (i > inOrder.length)
{
return -1;
}
}
}
Does anybody know what is wrong?

 

[exk]

Your else if condition can't occur.

The loop only runs while i < inOrder.legth and you are checking for i to be greater than your loop limit. If it doesn't find your search parameter it will return something that is not int and that's why you get the error.

Something like this might work better:

public static int nameSearch(String[] inOrder, String searchedFor)
{
for (int i = 0; i < inOrder.length; i++)
{
if (searchedFor == inOrder) break;
if (i == inOrder.length - 1) i = -1;
}
return i;
}

 

[piercas]

Hello,

It seems like there may be a few issues with your code that are causing this error. First, it's important to note that when comparing strings in Java, you should use the .equals() method instead of the == operator. This is because the == operator checks for object equality, while .equals() checks for value equality. So in your if statement, it should be "if (searchedFor.equals(inOrder))".

Additionally, it looks like your else if statement may be causing the issue. If none of the elements in the array match the searchedFor string, the for loop will continue until i is equal to inOrder.length. At this point, the else if statement will be triggered and return -1, but since the method is expecting an int to be returned within the for loop, it will throw an error. To fix this, you can move the return -1 statement outside of the for loop, after the closing curly brace.

I hope this helps! If you continue to have issues, I would recommend reaching out to a Java programming forum for further assistance. Good luck!