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

public ArrayList divineCast(String object) {  
        try
        {
            Integer result = Integer.parseInt(object);
            ArrayList generic = new   ArrayList();
            generic.add(result);
            return generic;
        }
        catch(Exception e)
        {
            //not a Integer
        }
        try
        {
            Float result = Float.parseFloat(object);
            ArrayList generic = new   ArrayList();
            generic.add(result);
            return generic;
        }
        catch(Exception e)
        {
            //not a Float
        }
        try
        {
            Double result = Double.parseDouble(object);
            ArrayList generic = new   ArrayList();
            generic.add(result);
            return generic;
        }
        catch(Exception e)
        {
            //not a double
        }
        try
        {
            Boolean result = Boolean.parseBoolean(object);
            ArrayList generic = new   ArrayList();
            generic.add(result);
            return generic;
        }
        catch(Exception e)
        {
            //not a Boolean
        }
        try
        {
            String result = String.valueOf(object);
            ArrayList generic = new   ArrayList();
            generic.add(result);
            return generic;
        }
        catch(Exception e)
        {
            //not a String
        }
        return null;

    }

Then you can call then function as so

String test1 = "0.90854938";
String test2 = "true";
System.out.println(divineCast(test1).get(0));
System.out.println(divineCast(test1).get(0).getClass());
System.out.println(divineCast(test2).get(0));
System.out.println(divineCast(test2).get(0).getClass());

Java doesn't force you to declare the type of ArrayList you are returning in the function declaration, so you can return an ArrayList of any type.