Stuck in a loop of errors: unreachable statement and no return statement provided

Question

Here is a snippet of my code:

public static int dc (String s,int k, int c){
  String s1, s2;
  int m, n;
  if (check(s, k) != -1) {
    int p = check(s, k);
    c++;
    s1 = s.substring(0, p) + s.substring(p + 1);
    s2 = s.substring(0, p + 1) + s.substring(p + 2);
    if ((check(s1, k) == -1) || (check(s2, k) == -1)) {
      return c;
    } else {
      m = dc(s1, k, c);
      n = dc(s2, k, c);
      if (m > n) {
        return n;
      } else {
        return m;
      }
    }
  }
}

So the error says that there is a missing return statement (not sure which scenario have I missed). But when I add a return statement at the end, it shows that return statement unreachable. I've found an helpful answer here: Unreachable return statement still throws error and I have tried putting it in a try catch block but it still asks for a return statement. Even though the compiler knows that anything I write in the end is redundant, why is it still showing an error?

Answer 1

If your first check check(s, k) returns -1 then you don't return anything