Methods revisited
This figure sums up where our understanding of methods is at the moment:
Figure 9.1 – Understanding methods
As we can see in the figure, there are still a couple of question marks around methods. We will totally take the lid off methods and see how they work and what exactly the other parts of the method are doing later in the chapter. In Chapter 10, Object-Oriented Programming, and Chapter 11, More Object-Oriented Programming, we will clear up the last few parts of the mystery of methods while discussing object-oriented programming.
What exactly are Java methods?
A method is a collection of variables, expressions, and control flow statements bundled together inside an opening and closing curly brace preceded by a signature. We have already been using lots of methods, but we just haven't looked very closely at them yet.
Let's start with the method structure.
