Part Three, Return Objects from a Method.

1. Change the code from what you had to the following
   private void btnActivate_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
   {
        int intOutput = 0;
        intOutput = ChangeLabel(Convert.ToInt32(txtInput.Text));
        txtInput.Text = intOutput.ToString();
   }
   
   private int ChangeLabel(int intBeginVal)
   {
        lblAnswer.Text = "Beginning value is " + intBeginVal.ToString();
        intBeginVal *= 12;
        return intBeginVal;
   }
   
2. You also need to go to the Page_Load event and comment out the ChangeLabel Method call in that event or you will get an error message when you go to build the project.
3. Run the Application and type in the number 2 into the text box. Press the Activate button and you should get something that looks like:
   

Let's analyze what is occurring line by line.

1. You have just pressed the Activate button. The first line to run is
   int intOutput = 0;
   Here you are creating a variable, an int and initializing it to 0.
2. Then you fire the method
   intOutput = ChangeLabel(Convert.ToInt32(txtInput.Text));
   Notice that you start by having intOutput =. This means whatever the method returns must be able to be accepted by an int. Any other objects, like strings, booleans, or DataSets will cause a compiler error. Next I have slightly altered the ChangeLabel call to send in the txtInput.Text value, but converted it to an integer before it reaches the actual method.
3. At this point the program will go into the ChangeLabel method. Notice that I have changed the method to look like this:
   private int ChangeLabel(int intBeginVal)
   The void after the word private has been changed to int. This means that this method must return an object of int or you will get a compiler error. The error will say something along the lines of "Cannot implicitly convert type "string" to "int"".
   
   The object being passed in has also been changed to an int with a variable name of intBeginVal, which we will use as we traverse the method.
4. Then we are going to give our label the value originally passed to the method.
   lblAnswer.Text = "Beginning value is " + intBeginVal.ToString();.
5. The next step we are going to use an old C++ trick of multiplying the value passed in by itself.
   intBeginVal *= 12;
   So intBeginVal will now equal 12 times whatever number you typed into the textbox.
6. We return the calculated value from the previous step.
   return intBeginVal; It is very important ***** You must have the word return and the proper returned object. Nothing else happens after the word return, the code immediately returns to the calling method with the value in whatever object is after the word return.
7. Finally, we come back to the event that called the method with the return object. We can do anything we want with the object that is returned. In this case we are going to display it inside the text box, so we can visually compare the values passed and the value returned.
   txtInput.Text = intOutput.ToString();