functional/procedureal Methods

[leiferouis]

In one of my computer science modules it explains that a procedural method "cause one or more actions to occur from within the method" and "may receive values when invoked / called " and a functional method "performs a calculation and returns a result / value". What does this actually mean? When the assignment asks me to use procedural method, what is it asking for?

[Fubarable]

a procedural method and functional method are very similar except that the procedural method returns nothing. When you define it, you state that it returns "void" or nothing. For instance:

Procedural method:

public void printMyName(String name)
{
  System.out.println("My name is " + name);
}

Functional method:

public int calcMyAge(int yearOfBirth, int currentYear)
{
  return currentYear - yearOfBirth; // must return an int result
}

[Fubarable]

(this brings back memories of my Turbo Pascal and Delphi days)

[Eranga]

I think those words are rarely used in Java. But in C/C++ it's used. I hope there is no huge different at all, isn't it, except that return something or not.

[leiferouis]

Thanks for the help. I guess when they are asking me to do the assignment with functional methods, they mean to use code that will return values?

[Eranga]

Yep, that's the meaning. Fubarable clearly state that on his posts.