Error “this method must return a result of type int”?

Question

I have this code below and it keep telling me that thanksgiving() must return a result type of int. I have casted all the results just to make sure, but nothing seems to be work

Answer 1

In this code:

public static int thanksgiving(int year)
{
  int day = firstOfMonth( year );
  if ( day == THURS ) 
  {
    return (int) 22;
  }
  if ( day > THURS )
  {
    return (int) 29 - ( day - THURS );
  }
  if ( day < THURS )
  {
    return (int) 22 + ( THURS + day );
  }
}

You're making your return statement in several if blocks. What if none of them are true? The compiler will not allow this, and you should either return a default value at the bottom or throw an exception. Or else make some of the if statements else - if with a last else:

public static int thanksgiving(int year){
  int day = firstOfMonth( year );
  if ( day == THURS ) {
    return (22;
  } else if ( day > THURS ) {
    return 29 - ( day - THURS );
  } else { // else without the if
    // we know that ( day < THURS )
    return 22 + ( THURS + day );
  }
}

Also:

• There is no need to cast an int into an int.
• An unrelated issue is that your code uses a lot of "magic" numbers and you will want to avoid using them.