Do I need to return multiple objects to a bad design sign?

Question

Sometimes I come across this situation in Java, trying to use immutable objects. In Java, a method cannot return multiple objects, for example return a, b, c. Returning an array of objects of different types or a wrapper object makes the code look ugly. Therefore, I must pass mutable objects to the method and let it change the state of these objects. So generally speaking, when programming you have to return several objects to a bad design sign?

Answer 1

No, I do not believe. The ability to return tuples in Python was really convenient.

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Answer 2

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Answer 3

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Answer 4

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Modifying parameters are also a very common method. You can see examples in the JDK itself, for example Collections.sort (List of lists) or InputStream.read (byte []) .

It is also common when working with persistent objects, for example, in the code snippet below

public void updateTrackingFields(Trackable trackable, String user) {
  trackable.setChangedBy(user);
  trackable.setChangedTime(System.currentTimeMillis());
}

So, I believe that there can be much worse design decisions than these two.

EDIT: Added an example of persistent objects.