[oceanus]

What can I do to fix this? It says I'm missing a return statement, when I put one...

 public Student search(int find)
	  {
		 for(Student i: StudentBody)
		 {
			if(i.studentID == find)
			   return i;
			else{ 
			   return null; }
		 }
	  }

The compiler throws this error: StudentBody.java:50: missing return statement

[chili5]

You get that message because you are missing a return statement.

More seriously, you have a return statement in the loop structure but if the loop never enters there is no return statement.

You need a return statement just after your loop.

for(Student i: StudentBody)
		 {
			if(i.studentID == find)
			   return i;
			else{
			   return null; }
		 }
return null; // return statement after the loop in case the loop never enters

[oceanus]

chili5, on 9 Jan, 2010 - 07:50 AM, said:

You get that message because you are missing a return statement.

More seriously, you have a return statement in the loop structure but if the loop never enters there is no return statement.

You need a return statement just after your loop.

for(Student i: StudentBody)
		 {
			if(i.studentID == find)
			   return i;
			else{
			   return null; }
		 }
return null; // return statement after the loop in case the loop never enters

well do you know how I can fix this? How can I just throw in another return statement without messing up the function of the method?

[chili5]

I just told you how to fix it. You need a return statement outside of the loop. The program may never reach that point but it has to be there.

 public Student search(int find)
	  {
		 for(Student i: StudentBody)
		 {
			if(i.studentID == find)
			   return i;
			else{
			   return null; }
		 }
return null;
	  }

[Dogstopper]

To expand on what chili5 is saying, let's brainstorm alright? It says that there is a missing return statement but you have two. However, they are inside the foreach loop. NOW, what if StudentBody is empty, and have no Strings to loop through? It never enters anything inside the for loop and misses both returns.

So, I would return null and on the receiving end, if the answer is null, do something else. Just like chili5 said.

[oceanus]

Dogstopper, on 9 Jan, 2010 - 07:57 AM, said:

To expand on what chili5 is saying, let's brainstorm alright? It says that there is a missing return statement but you have two. However, they are inside the foreach loop. NOW, what if StudentBody is empty, and have no Strings to loop through? It never enters anything inside the for loop and misses both returns.

So, I would return null and on the receiving end, if the answer is null, do something else. Just like chili5 said.

I fixed it, what I did was take out the else part and put return null out of the for loop. that way if it can't find anything in the array, it will automatically return null and this also fixes the return statement error. thanks anyways guys

[chili5]

Good. The method you had before really made no sense anyways.

 public Student search(int find)
	  {
		 for(Student i: StudentBody)
		 {
			if(i.studentID == find)
			   return i;
			else{
			   return null; }
		 }
return null;
	  }

If the first student doesn't match the ID then you are returning null and saying it doesn't exist. Thus, you are always comparing just the first item in your array/list/ whatever structure it is.

Glad you figured it out!

To save this problem in the future always have a return statement just before the end of the method (even if you know logically it will never occur).