What is a method declaration in Java?

Classes are a blueprint for creating individual objects that contain the general characteristics of a defined object type . A modifier may or may not be used to declare a class.

The method declaration defines all the method’s attributes, such as access level, return type, name, and arguments , as shown in the following figure. The method body is where all the action takes place. It contains the instructions that implement the method.

Java requires that a method declare the data type of the value that it returns . If a method does not return a value, it must be declared to return void . … Methods use the return operator to return a value. Any method that is not declared void must contain a return statement.

The only required elements of a method declaration are the method’s return type, name, a pair of parentheses, () , and a body between braces, {} . More generally, method declarations have six components, in order: Modifiers—such as public , private , and others you will learn about later.