Missing method body, or declare abstract

Question

Problem:

Hello Mate,

I have a simple chunk of code written in Java programming language. I am trying to call a static function inside my main function. Everything is good except for one compile-time error. When I am trying to compile my program it throws back an error missing method body, or declare abstract

Find my code snippet below and fix the problem for me. I would appreciate your kind concern

public class SampleString{   
    public static void main(String[] args){
        sampleString();
        System.exit(0);
    }

    public static void sampleString();
    {
        System.out.println("I am a string!");
    }
}

Produced error is:

SampleString.java:7: error: missing method body, or declare abstract
    public static void sampleString();
                       ^
1 error

Where I've been doing wrong all the day? I am looking forward to hearing from you guys. Thanks.

Answer 1

Well, the problem occurred in the line 

public static void sampleString();

when you put the semicolon ( ; ) on the end of the line. Ending a function with a semicolon intends that you want it to be abstract and not have a body in this method. This is comparable to how methods in interfaces are declared.

To avoid such error the best practice is to put the curly brace end of the line like this

public static void sampleString(){
    System.out.println("I am a string!");
}

One more thing, you don’t need to put the line

System.exit(0);

within the main function. The main function will automatically be terminated by itself by executing the method sampleString();

I hope this might help you.

Answer 2

This error commonly occurs when you have a semicolon on your method declaration line. For example "public static void main(String args[]);". You should not have a semicolon there.

Example:

In this code line:

public static void helloWorld();

Because of this line, the code will show error. Remove semicolon

Make it like this:

public static void helloWorld()

To avoid this mistake further on, we can do it like this:

public static void helloWorld() {

An opening curly brace in the same line would make error detection easier.

Understanding Common Errors In Java, are case sensitive. This means that if you declare a variable named average and try to later refer to it using Average, the compiler will complain that it cannot find a symbol named Average. Further, your main method header (the public static void main (String [] args) part is terminated by a ; which effectively closes the method with an empty method body. Remember: Method declarations (or anything that requires an {) must not have a semicolon ; following the statement. ; terminates statements.