Thread: Missing return statement

I will be calling this method in order to test whether a game of Tic-Tac-Toe is a draw or not by transversing a 3x3 character array named "board". If the array contains a Null character ('u/0000') at any point, the game can still continue and will return false, while if all the spaces in the array are occupied by something besides a Null character, the game cannot continue and is a draw, returning true. The problem is that I get a missing return statement on the line containing the last curly brace:

public static boolean isAdraw()
  {
    for(int i = 0; i < board.length; i++)
    {
      for(int j = 0; j < board.length; i++)
      {
        if(board[i][j] == NUL_CHAR)
        {
          return false;
        }
        else if(board[i][j] != NUL_CHAR)
        {
          return true;
        }
      }
    }
  }   //<----- I get the error on this line right here

what seems to be the issue? and feel free to ask for the rest of my code if it pertains to the solution, I just wanted to make it easier to read.

Ask yourself at what point you know there are no null values anywhere. The method should return true at that point and not before.

The compiler expect, if the second if statement [else if(board[i][j] != NUL_CHAR)] also false then this method does not return any boolean value. That's why it showing 'missing return statement' compile time error.

Do not specify the second condition:- if(board[i][j]!!=NUL_CHAR)
Write something like if<condition> dothis else dothat. Also your logic seems to be incorrect, it looks like only the first value gets checked.

Hi ,use the simple if like

if(board[i][j] == NUL_CHAR)
{
return false;
}

if(board[i][j] != NUL_CHAR)
{
return true;
}

or add the return statement at the end of the method.

Thanks for all your help guys, I ended up removing the else if statement, and putting the return true; line outside of the loops, but within the method, and it works!

Well done! Yes, you don't know there are no null values at all until after both loops have finished.