What does return do when used inside an if statement?

Question

What does the return inside the if statements do in the following code?

public void startElement(String namespaceURI, String localName,String qName,                                           Attributes atts) throws SAXException {     depth++;     if (localName.equals("channel"))     {         currentstate = 0;         return;     }     if (localName.equals("image"))     {         // record our feed data - you temporarily stored it in the item :)         _feed.setTitle(_item.getTitle());         _feed.setPubDate(_item.getPubDate());     }     if (localName.equals("item"))     {         // create a new item         _item = new RSSItem();         return;     }     if (localName.equals("title"))     {         currentstate = RSS_TITLE;         return;     }     if (localName.equals("description"))     {         currentstate = RSS_DESCRIPTION;         return;     }     if (localName.equals("link"))     {         currentstate = RSS_LINK;         return;     }     if (localName.equals("category"))     {         currentstate = RSS_CATEGORY;         return;     }     if (localName.equals("pubDate"))     {         currentstate = RSS_PUBDATE;         return;     }     // if you don't explicitly handle the element, make sure you don't wind             // up erroneously storing a newline or other bogus data into one of our             // existing elements     currentstate = 0; } 

Does it takes us out of the if statement and proceeds to next statement or it takes us out of the method startElement?

Answer 1

The returns in the above code will take you out of the method.

Answer 2

It finishes the method so the code below it, is not executed.