Question
What does Void mean? What are Void methods versus non-Void methods?
Answer
Void methods will do something but will not return anything. “Setter” methods are void methods.
Non-Void methods will return a value. They can return an int, float, boolean, double, String, array or objects. “Getter” and the “toString” methods are non-void methods because they return a value. Non-Void methods must have a “return” statement in them.
Example
public class MethodTypes
{
private String name;
private int value;
private ArrayList <String> ingredients;
// void methods
public void setName (String newName) {
this.name = newName;
}
public void setName (String newName) {
this.name = newName;
}
public void setName (String newName) {
this.name = newName;
}
// non-void methods
public String getName () {
return this.name;
public int getValue () {
return this.value;
public ArrayList <String> getIngredients () {
return this.ingredients;
public boolean containsIngredient (String ingredient) {
return this.ingredients.contains(ingredient);
}
Other Resources
Lesson 34: Void vs non-void methods