Calling void methods is fine. Expecting a result is the point in question.

For dynamic Groovy, you can't always tell which case you have:

class Foo {
  def bar() { 42 }
  void baz() { }
}

def method(boolean condition, delegate, meth1, meth2) {
  if (condition) delegate."$meth1"()
  else delegate."$meth2"()
}

println method(true, new Foo(), 'bar', 'baz') // 42
println method(false, new Foo(), 'bar', 'baz') // null

Here, "method" is expecting to return some value that happens to be the
last expression, i.e. the result of the if/then/else expression, so we
return null in such cases.

Cheers, Paul.


On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 7:38 AM MG <mgbiz@arscreat.com> wrote:

> What I meant was: What sense does letting void methods be called make
> for the dynamic case, i.e. the dynamic compiler ? From a programmer's
> perspective, i.e. what is a programming use case for that
> feature/behavior, in dynamic Groovy ?
>
> Of course I can do the following in dynamic Groovy:
>
> // Groovy 2.5.0
> class Goo {
>      //void nogoo() { return 123 } // Dynamic Groovy compiler:
> RuntimeParserException: Cannot use return statement with an expression on a
> method that returns void
>      void nogoo() { 123 }
> }
>
> final goo = new Goo()
>
> println "original: goo.nogoo()=${goo.nogoo()}"
>
> goo.metaClass.nogoo = { return 456 }
>
> println "mopped: goo.nogoo()=${goo.nogoo()}"
>
>
> Which will build, run, and output
>
> original: goo.nogoo()=null
> mopped: goo.nogoo()=456
>
>   i.e. returning 456 from a void method in the second case.
> But if I am using a library that includes the Goo class, why would I
> ever expect a return value from the nogoo method (and therefore call
> it), considering its return type is void ? And if I control the Goo
> class myself, why would I not just change its return type to int or def ?
>
> Cheers,
> mg
>
>
> On 03.09.2018 22:36, Jochen Theodorou wrote:
> > On 03.09.2018 17:13, mg wrote:
> >> But in what scenario does the dynamic behavior make sense ?
> >
> > for a static compiler? none other than being compatible
> >
> > bye Jochen
> >
>
>