Multiple Return Values in Java
Linked by Bjorn Raupach on Thu 17th Jul 2008 06:01 UTC
Java Today was one of those days when I wished Java would support multiple return values. I had to develop a rather CPU-intensive algorithm which would compute a solution for a knotty constraint problem. Having a solution alone is sometimes not enough and you also need to add some parameters which measure the quality of the computed outcome. Most of these accompanying parameters can or have to be computed within the algorithm itself, but Java allows you to return only one value either an object or a primitive type. People working with Lisp, MATLAB or Perl, just to mention a few, don't have a problem like this at all. Functions supporting multiple return values is already implemented at the language level and frameworks make heavy use of this. But as a Java programmer you are pretty much stuck here and need to consider some other means to come out of this situation. In the following I would like to give some hints on that topic. Hopefully they are of help for anyone having the same problem every now and then.
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tristan
Member since:
2006-02-01

"Java doesn't have pointers.

Sure java has pointers. You just can't manipulate them.
E.g.:
Object a=new Object(), b=a;
Here a and b are pointers to the same object. "

To a C++ programmer, a and b look a lot more like references than pointers...

Reply Parent Score: 1

ebasconp Member since:
2006-05-09

"[q]Java doesn't have pointers.

Sure java has pointers. You just can't manipulate them.
E.g.:
Object a=new Object(), b=a;
Here a and b are pointers to the same object. "

To a C++ programmer, a and b look a lot more like references than pointers... [/q]


No, they are not references, they are pointers. The code above is identical to:

Object* a = new Object(), *b = a;

a and b are pointers to the same object.

References in C++ are stuff defined as:

const Object& a = Object::GetSingleton();

a is a const reference to an instance of a class.

Reply Parent Score: 3