Is it bad practice to have a method return a string inside another method? [closed]

Question

So, I'm writing some code for an assignment in my Data Structures class, and I was wondering if using a method return a value into another method is generally bad practice

public void PrintLocation(MarsLander ml)
{
    for (int i = 10; i >= 0 ; i--)
    {
        Console.Write("{0} m: {1}", i * 100, WheresTheSpaceship(ml, i));
    }

    Console.WriteLine();
}

public string WheresTheSpaceship(MarsLander ml, int i)
{
    if (i == ((ml.GetHeight() % 100) + 9))
    {
        return " * \n";
    }
    else
    {
        return "\n";
    }
}

The WheresTheSpaceship method should return whether to print the location of the spaceship (the *) just indent down to the next line and return to the PrintLocation method to reiterate the loop. (This is my first question please go easy on me :) )

Answer 1

In general it is good practice to keep methods short and to have a specific purpose, otherwise they may be misused. (Your method determines whether the location should be printed and formats the output).
The method should return what it was intended for: If you want to ask whether the location should be printed, a more appropriate method would be:

public bool ShouldPrintLocation(MarsLander ml, int i)
{
    return (i == ((ml.GetHeight() % 100) + 9);
}

PrintLocation() would then actually print the location if that is necessary:

public void PrintLocation(MarsLander ml)
{
    for (int i = 10; i >= 0 ; i--)
    {
        string locationText = ShouldPrintLocation(ml, i) ? "*" : string.Empty;
        Console.WriteLine("{0} m: {1}", i * 100, locationText);
    }

    Console.WriteLine();
}

To me it makes more sense to have the output formatting in PrintLocation as this method is intended to.. Print the location, as opposed to doing some logic/calculation