How to return two values from a Java method?

Subash Chandran 4th September 2019 Leave a Comment

Short answer: You can’t return two values from a Java method. Java doesn’t support multi-value returns.

Long answer: There are workarounds. Scroll down.

Returns multiple values as an array

public static int[] yourMethod(){
    int number1 = 1;
    int number2 = 2;
    return new int[] {number1, number2};
}


public static void main(String[] args) {
  int result[] = yourMethod();
  System.out.println(result[0] + result[1]);
}

This works only if the values you return are of same type.

Implement a generic pair object if you are sure that you need to return only two values:

public class TwoValuesReturn
{

    public static Pair<Integer> yourMethod() {
        int number1 = 1;
        int number2 = 2;
        return new Pair<Integer>(number1, number2);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Pair<Integer> pair = yourMethod();
        System.out.println(pair.first() + pair.second());
    }
}

class Pair<T> {
    private final T firstValue;
    private final T secondValue;

    public Pair(T first, T second) {
        firstValue = first;
        secondValue = second;
    }

    public T first() {
        return firstValue;
    }

    public T second() {
        return secondValue;
    }
}

Using AbstractMap’s key and value

AbstractMap.Entry<String, Integer> map=new AbstractMap.SimpleEntry<>("Count" , 32);

String name=map.getKey();
Integer value=map.getValue();

Using Collections

public static List getMultipleValues(){
 List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
 int number1 = 1;
 int number2 = 2;
 list.add(number1);
 list.add(number2);
 return list;
 }

public static void main(String[] args) {
      List<Integer> numList = getMultipleValues();
}

You can also try using Map or Set to return two/multiple values from a Java method.