Declaring functions in JSP?

Question

I come from PHP world, where declaring a function in the middle of a php page is pretty simple. I tried to do the same in JSP:

public String getQuarter(int i){ String quarter; switch(i){     case 1: quarter = "Winter";     break;      case 2: quarter = "Spring";     break;      case 3: quarter = "Summer I";     break;      case 4: quarter = "Summer II";     break;      case 5: quarter = "Fall";     break;      default: quarter = "ERROR"; }  return quarter; } 

I get the following error:

An error occurred at line: 20 in the jsp file: /headers.jsp Illegal modifier for the variable getQuarter; only final is permitted return; 

Answer 1

You need to enclose that in <%! %> as follows:

<%!  public String getQuarter(int i){ String quarter; switch(i){         case 1: quarter = "Winter";         break;          case 2: quarter = "Spring";         break;          case 3: quarter = "Summer I";         break;          case 4: quarter = "Summer II";         break;          case 5: quarter = "Fall";         break;          default: quarter = "ERROR"; }  return quarter; }  %> 

You can then invoke the function within scriptlets or expressions:

<%      out.print(getQuarter(4)); %> 

or

<%= getQuarter(17) %>