[SalesForce] Can a page reference method be called from within a void method

Normally it must work with or without actionStatus. I've just tested some examples and it works for me realy good:

This is my controller with a PageReference method (i have checked it with three variants of PageReference methods):

// Test method 1
public PageReference gotoPage(){
    PageReference p = new PageReference('/apex/test2');
    return p;
}

// Test method 2
public PageReference gotoPage(){
    return Page.test2;
}

// Test method 3
public PageReference gotoPage(){
    Account a = [select id from account limit 1];
    PageReference p = new ApexPages.StandardController(a).view();
    return p;
}

Visualforce page test1. The reRender param here is needed to be able to see the startText of the status component:

<apex:commandButton action="{!gotoPage}" value="Go" status="stat" reRender="none"/>
<apex:actionStatus startText="redirecting..." id="stat"/>

The documentation does not specify any specific order between the action method and the various page expressions, so you should expect no particular order. Use lazy-loading/initialization in these scenarios to coerce your desired order-of-execution.

The solution:

// define your initialization logic in here:
private void initStrings() {
    // init only if not previously init'd:
    if (strings == null)
        strings = new String[]{};
}

// for everywhere but initStrings, use this getter rather than
// a direct reference to "strings":
public String[] getStrings() {
    initStrings();
    return strings;
}

public Integer getStringsSize() {
    return getStrings().size();
}

Or a a slightly more compact solution using an attribute:

public String[] strings {
    get {
        if (strings == null) {
            // initialization logic:
            strings = new String[]{};
        }
        return strings;
    }

    private set;
}

public Integer getStringsSize() {
    return strings.size();
}