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It's often useful to have a method return a value to the class that called
it. This is accomplished by the return keyword at the end of
a method and by declaring the data type that is returned by the method at
the beginning of the method.
For example, the following getLicensePlate() method
returns the current value of the licensePlate field in the Car
class.
String getLicensePlate() {
return this.licensePlate;
}
A method like this that merely returns the value of an object's field or
property is called a getter or accessor method.
The signature String getLicensePlate() indicates that getLicensePlate()
returns a value of type String and takes no arguments. Inside
the method the line
return this.licensePlate;
returns the String contained in the licensePlate
field to whoever called this method. It is important that the type of
value returned by the return statement match the type declared in the
method signature. If it does not, the compiler will complain.
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