C# 0 The Complete Reference

AreaPerPerson( )

 is called, it is put on the right side 

of an assignment statement. On the left is a variable that will receive the value returned by 

AreaPerPerson( )

. Thus, after

areaPP = house.AreaPerPerson();

executes, the area-per-person of the 

house

 object is stored in 

areaPP

.

Notice that 

AreaPerPerson( ) 

now has a return type of 

int

. This means that it will return 

an integer value to the caller. The return type of a method is important because the type of 

data returned by a method must be compatible with the return type specified by the method. 

Thus, if you want a method to return data of type 

double

, then its return type must be type 

double

.

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Although the preceding program is correct, it is not written as efficiently as it could be. 

Specifically, there is no need for the 

areaPP

 variable. A call to