Method should return multiple values

Question

Hii

I have method in C#, I have to return multiple values from that method with out using collections like arrays. Is there any reliable way ?

Answer 1

Yes, the out keyword:

public void ReturnManyInts(out int int1, out int int2, out int int3)
{
    int1 = 10;
    int2 = 20;
    int3 = 30;
}

then call it like this:

int i1, i2, i3;
ReturnManyInts(out i1, out i2, out i3);

Console.WriteLine(i1);
Console.WriteLine(i2);
Console.WriteLine(i3);

which outputs:

10
20
30

EDIT:

I'm seeing that a lot of posts are suggesting to create your own class for this. This is not necessary as .net provides you with a class to do what they are saying already. The Tuple class.

public Tuple<int, string, char> ReturnMany()
{
    return new Tuple<int, string, char>(1, "some string", 'B');
}

then you can retrieve it like so:

var myTuple = ReturnMany();
myTuple.Item1 ...
myTuple.Item2 ...

there are generic overloads so you can have up to 8 unique types in your tuple.

Answer 2

Well, you could use:

• a custom class/struct/type, containing all your values
• out parameters

I.e.:

class MyValues
{
    public string Val1 { get; set; }
    public int Val2 {get; set; }
}

public MyValues ReturnMyValues();

or

public void ReturnMyValues(out string Val1, out int Val2);

Answer 3

If you are using .NET 4.0 you can use one of the generic Tuple classes to return multiple values from a method call. The static Tuple class provides methods to create Tuple objects. So you do not have to define your own return type for the method.

public Tuple<string,int> Execute()
{
  return new Tuple<string,int>("Hello World", 2);
}

Answer 4

Yes could create a new type that will contain multiple properties and then return this type:

public MyType MyMethod() 
{
    return new MyType
    {
        Prop1 = "foo",
        Prop2 = "bar"
    };
}

Answer 5

Why should using 'out' being an unreliable way? (Or did you make a typo and meant without?)

There are several methods:

• Return a object which holds multiple values (struct/class etc)
• out
• ref

Answer 6

A Descriptor class, or structure. You must put it somewhere as it's logical that a method must return only one value. Alternatively you can use out or ref, but i would go returning a class.

Btw what's holding you not to use collections?.

Answer 7

public int Method Name(out string stringValue, out int intValue)
{
    ///
          Method goes here
    ///

    return intVaraible
}

here you will get 3 return Values 1. stringValue 2. intValue 3. intVariable