The class Chess has a method called knighMoves(int i, int j): Chess with Chess as the return type. Would the method header be

public static Chess knightMoves(int i, int j)
{
   return
}

What would the return statement entail?

CodePudding user response：

Your model tells us that the operation knightMoves() is not static (static members should be underlined in the diagram), and it returns a Chess object.

You may be confused because the return type is also the enclosing class. But this does not change anything. The java method would look like:

public Chess knightMoves(int i, int j)
{
   Chess game;
   … // some code that would assign a value to game
       // and or change its state
   return game; 
}

or depending on your design intent:

public Chess knightMoves(int i, int j)
{
   … // some code that changes the current object
   return this; // return enclosing object
}