Return Issues

[magicgavin]

I'm trying to pass a string into the method and have it return the results from mydata2. It keep getting the error "missing return statement".

// Main method
	public static String readData (String arg1)
	{
		// Stream to read file
		FileInputStream fin;		

		try
		{
		    // Open an input stream
		    String  mydata2="";
		    fin = new FileInputStream (arg1);

		    // Read a line of text
		    mydata2 = new DataInputStream(fin).readLine();
		    // Close our input stream
		    fin.close();	
		    return mydata2;
		}
		// Catches any error conditions
		catch (IOException e)
		{
			//System.err.println ("Unable to read from file");
			System.exit(-1);
		}
	}

[magicyte]

// Main method
	public void static String readData (String arg1)
	{
		// Stream to read file
		FileInputStream fin;		

		try
		{
		    // Open an input stream
		    String  mydata2="";
		    fin = new FileInputStream (arg1);

		    // Read a line of text
		    mydata2 = new DataInputStream(fin).readLine();
		    // Close our input stream
		    fin.close();	
		    return mydata2;
		}
		// Catches any error conditions
		catch (IOException e)
		{
			//System.err.println ("Unable to read from file");
			System.exit(-1);
		}
	}

Might this work?

-magicyte

[magicgavin]

Thanks for your help. I removed void because I though string replaced it.

[Twey]

It does. I doubt that will even compile — it's a nonsensical type signature.

What you should have done is:

public static String readData(String arg1) {
    // Stream to read file
    FileInputStream fin;
    String r;

    try {
        // Open an input stream
        fin = new FileInputStream(arg1);

        // Read a line of text
        r = (new DataInputStream(fin)).readLine();

        // Close our input stream
        fin.close();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        // Catches any error conditions
        System.err.println("Unable to read from file");
        System.exit(-1);
    }

    return r;
}

Style notes: spaces do not go between method names and their arguments (you seemed a bit on the fence about this one); keep as much out of the try block as you can (catching exceptions is expensive); braces go on the same line as the keyword that opens the block in Java (the style you were using for the braces was a form of K&R C style).