why cant i return a value from this method?

[jon ninpoja]

import java.util.Scanner;
public class InputHandler {
    public static Scanner userInput = new Scanner (System.in);

    public static void enterNumber () {
        if (userInput.hasNextInt()) {
            int userNumber = userInput.nextInt();
        } else System.out.println("That is not a number");
    }

    public static enterText () {
        if (userInput.hasNext()) {
            String userText = userInput.next();
            return userText;
        }
 }
}

why cant i return userText to the class that called the function to have the user make a selection?

[jon ninpoja]

i also tried putting return after the if block
i get an error
return required and cannot return with void keyword...dont understand this

[Bear Bibeault]

On line 11, where did you declare the return type of the method?

[John Joe]

Shouldn't it be

  public static String enterText () {
        if (userInput.hasNext()) {
            String userText = userInput.next();
            return userText;
        }

[Campbell Ritchie]

jon ninpoja wrote:. . .. . .   if (userInput.hasNext()) { . . .. . .

But System.in always has more input, potentially, so hasNext() will return true, unless some wally has gone and closed System.in.
Your enterNumber method is incorrect; I can see two errors. Once you have sorted out the enterText method, you can probably work out what is wrong with the number method.

Oh, I can see a third error in it.

[Ryan McGuire]

jon ninpoja wrote:

        if (userInput.hasNextInt()) {
            int userNumber = userInput.nextInt();
        } else System.out.println("That is not a number");

Just because you can make '} else System.out.println("...");' a single line doesn't mean you should.  In fact, do yourself, future maintenance programmers and the Java community as whole a favor and get in the habit of (in order of importance, IMHO)...
A) Start the conditionally executed code (the System.out.println() in this case) on a new line, even if you don't always use braces.
B) Always use braces even though you don't have to.
C) Put the else on a new line.

C) is just a question of style an some folks here may disagree.  Fine... put your else on the same line as the closing brace for the if().  All the time and disk space you spend putting in unnecessary braces will be more than paid for the first time you DON'T have a hard-to-find bug like...

Initial code

if (something) {
    do the right thing;
}
else 
    errorCode = 42;

Modified code added during debugging:

if (something) {
    do the right thing;
}
else 
    System.out.println("About to set error to 42");
    errorCode = 42;