Question

What does the method call tripleString("APCSA"); return for the following method? public String tripleString(String x) { return x * 3; }

Answer 1

The call triple String("APCSA") will throw an error with the given code, as strings cannot be multiplied in Java. The correct way is using string concatenation or other methods like a loop or the 'repeat' method in Java. The expected output, after correction, would be 'APCSAAPCSAAPCSA'.

Step-by-step explanation:

The tripleString("APCSA") method call is intended to return the input string repeated three times. However, there is a mistake in the provided code snippet. In Java, to concatenate a string with itself a certain number of times, you cannot use the multiplication operator (*) as you would with numbers. Instead, you must use concatenation, or in this case, for the purpose of repetition, potentially a loop or the repeat method available in Java 11 and later.

Here is a corrected version of the method which would return the desired outcome:

public String tripleString(String x) {
return x + x + x; // Concatenate 'x' with itself two more times

If you call triple String("APCSA") with this corrected method, it will return the string "APCSA" repeated three times: "APCSAAPCSAAPCSA".