The basic way to return values from a method is to use a return statement! (A well-constructed programming language shouldn’t have a lot of surprises.)

Let’s start with an example in the below code. It contains a definition of the Yell() method, which returns a string, and it calls that method in Main().

When we execute this program, the code in Main() runs first:

1. Yell() is called.
2. In Yell(), the uppercase version of "who's there?" is created and returned.
3. Back in Main(), that returned value is stored in the variable output and then printed to the console:

static string Yell(string phrase) 
{
  return phrase.ToUpper();
}

public static void Main()
{
  string output = Yell("who's there?");
  Console.WriteLine(output); // Prints WHO'S THERE?
}

Here’s a more generic definition: the keyword return tells the computer to exit the method and return a value to wherever the method was called.

When a method is declared, it must announce the type of value it will return. In this case, Yell() returns a string, so it has the string modifier (right before the name Yell).

That first line of the method is called a method declaration, so we can say that the method declaration must contain the type of the return value.

Generally, the method declaration is a combination of details including: the access modifiers, return type, method name, and parameter types. This lesson will not cover access modifiers, like static, so that we can focus on the return type, like string.