Return different type of data from a method in java?

Question

public static void main(String args[]) {
    myMethod(); // i am calling static method from main()
 }

.

public static ? myMethod(){         


        

Answer 1

Generally if you are not sure of what value you will end up returning, you should consider using return-type as super-class of all the return values. In this case, where you need to return String or int, consider returning Object class(which is the base class of all the classes defined in java).

But be careful to have instanceof checks where you are calling this method. Or else you may end up getting ClassCastException.

public static void main(String args[]) {
        Object obj = myMethod(); // i am calling static method from main() which return Object
    if(obj instanceof String){
    // Do something
    }else(obj instance of Integer) {
    //do something else
     }