Multiple Return Values in Minitab

Java supports multiple return values through the use of custom objects or arrays. In this example, we’ll use a custom object to demonstrate a similar concept.

import java.util.Arrays;

public class MultipleReturnValues {

    // This class represents the multiple return values
    static class Pair {
        int first;
        int second;

        Pair(int first, int second) {
            this.first = first;
            this.second = second;
        }
    }

    // This method returns a Pair object containing two int values
    public static Pair vals() {
        return new Pair(3, 7);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Here we use the Pair object to get multiple return values
        Pair result = vals();
        System.out.println(result.first);
        System.out.println(result.second);

        // If you only want a subset of the returned values,
        // you can simply ignore the ones you don't need
        Pair result2 = vals();
        System.out.println(result2.second);
    }
}

To run the program:

$ javac MultipleReturnValues.java
$ java MultipleReturnValues
3
7
7

In Java, we don’t have built-in support for multiple return values like in some other languages. However, we can achieve similar functionality by using custom objects, as demonstrated in this example with the Pair class.

The vals() method returns a Pair object containing two int values. In the main method, we call vals() and access the returned values using the first and second fields of the Pair object.

If you only need a subset of the returned values, you can simply ignore the ones you don’t need by not using them, as shown in the last part of the main method.

This approach provides a way to return and handle multiple values in Java, although it’s not as concise as in some other languages. For more complex cases with more than two values, you might want to create a custom class with meaningful field names instead of using a generic Pair class.

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