whatnot, whatelsenot and whatever are all local to the function, so they cannot be accessed from outside.
You have to use a "global" variable, or just to return the value at the end of the function.

yeah you can use

all very true, however there is another angle to this story. the changes are not accessible outside the function because the variables are passed by value. as they get passed in the numbers are copied to local variables. however, objects will be passed by reference and changes to their member WILL be visible outside the function. for example:

in addition to what dr.mo said,.... arrays are also passed by reference, so its possible to do:

1. void setup(){
2.   int[] value = {0};
3.   println(value);
4.   inc(value);
5.   inc(value);
6.   inc(value);
7.   println(value);
8. }
9. void inc(int[] a){
10.   a[0]++;
11. }

Strictly speaking, Java always pass parameters by value...
The nuance is that for objects (arrays are a special kind of object), the value is actually the reference to the object.
The nuance is important. If you do someCall(obj), the object pointed by obj cannot be replaced by another. But indeed, you can alter the content of the object (for non-final fields, at least).