title: Static method that returns a new instance?
body: <p>I've been tasked to make this static method:
  "createPerson – This method creates a new person given their first name, last, name, and age.  Then it returns a new instance of that person."</p>
  
  <p>But since we just learned static methods I am confused.</p>
  
  <p>Here's the driver class:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public class FriendlyPeople {
  
  public static void main(String[] args) {
      // TODO Auto-generated method stub
      System.out.println("Let's meet some friendly people");
      Person[] people =
              {
                      new Person("Tom Jones", 29),
                      new Person("Bob Jones", 40),
                      new Person("Alf Pererdur", 10),
                      new Person("Ripley Carver",20),
                      new Person("Britton Raven",47),
                      new Person("Joyce Elihu",93),
                      new Person("Kevin Jody",63),
                      new Person("Ben Jayce", 32),
                      new Person("Emerson Ezra",27),
                      new Person("Yorick Fearghal",44),
                      new Person("Kim Yori",23),
                      new Person("Sheldon Ambrose", 36),
                      new Person("Leonard Damion",33),
                      new Person("Agam Saburou", 53),
                      new Person ("Webster Chaz", 46),
                      new Person("Carol Dudel", 31)
              };
      Person p1 = new Person("Dacre Casey", 29);
      System.out.println("Testing the initial person");
      System.out.println(p1.toString());
      System.out.println();
  
  
      System.out.println("Adding one friend");
      p1.addFriend(Person.createPerson("Wetzel Edmund", 62));
      p1.printFriends();
      System.out.println();
  
      System.out.println("Adding a new friend using the overloaded operator");
      p1.addFriend("Judith Katheryne", 32);
      p1.printFriends();
      System.out.println();
  
      System.out.println("Adding a group of friends that exceeds the number of friends.");
      p1.addFriends(people);
      p1.printFriends();
      System.out.println();
  
      System.out.println("Removing a friend "+people[0].toString());
      p1.removeFriend(people[0]);
      p1.printFriends();
      System.out.println();
  
  
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Here's my code so far:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>public class Person {
  private String name;
  private int age;
  private Person[] friends;
  
  //Constructor for person
  public Person(String name, int age)
  {
      this.name = name;
      this.age = age;
  }
  //Constructor array for person
  public Person()
  {
      this.friends = new Person[10];
  }
  
  //Accessors
  public String getName() {return name;}
  
  public int getAge() {return age;}
  
  //Mutators
  public void setName (String name)
  {
      this.name = name;
  }
  
  public void setAge (int age)
  {
      if (age &lt; 0)
      {
          System.out.println("That is an invalid age");
          return;
      }
      this.age = age;
  }
  
  //Methods
  
  public static String createPerson (String s)
  {
  
  }
  
  public String toString() { return name + " " + age; }
  
  public boolean equals (Person person) {
      return this.name.equalsIgnoreCase(person.getName()) &amp;&amp; this.age == person.getAge();
  }
  
  //Add friend method
  public void addFriend(Person person)
  {
      for (int column = 0; column &lt; friends.length; column++)
      {
          if (friends[0] != null || (friends[column] == null &amp;&amp; friends[column-1] != null))
          {
              friends[column] = person;
          }
          if (friends[9] == person) {
              System.out.println("Friends list is full!");
          }
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Here's the method I am trying to figure out in particular, It's probably simple:</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>public static String createPerson (String s)
  {
  
  }
  </code></pre>