Multiple Return Values in CLIPS

Java supports multiple return values through the use of custom objects or arrays. This feature is often used to return both result and error values from a method.

import java.util.Arrays;

public class MultipleReturnValues {

    // This method returns an array of integers
    public static int[] vals() {
        return new int[]{3, 7};
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Here we use array destructuring to get the return values
        int[] result = vals();
        int a = result[0];
        int b = result[1];
        System.out.println(a);
        System.out.println(b);

        // If you only want a subset of the returned values,
        // you can ignore some elements
        int c = vals()[1];
        System.out.println(c);
    }
}

When you run this program, you’ll see:

3
7
7

In Java, we don’t have built-in support for multiple return values like in some other languages. Instead, we use arrays or custom objects to achieve similar functionality. In this example, we’re using an array to return multiple values.

The vals() method returns an array of two integers. In the main method, we first capture all return values into an array and then assign them to individual variables.

If you only need a subset of the returned values, you can directly access the array element you need, as shown with the variable c.

While Java doesn’t have a direct equivalent to the blank identifier (_), you can simply not use the variables you don’t need.

Next, we’ll look at how Java handles methods with a variable number of arguments.