Java: How to write a `zip` function? What should be the return type?

Question

What should be the return type of a zip function? (zip as in most other languages, e.g. read here)

I thought about some Pair-type but that

Answer 1

Since you appear to be determined to ignore people with many years Java experience, here is code which does the same as the zip function in python.

public static  List> zip(List... lists) {
    List> zipped = new ArrayList>();
    for (List list : lists) {
        for (int i = 0, listSize = list.size(); i < listSize; i++) {
            List list2;
            if (i >= zipped.size())
                zipped.add(list2 = new ArrayList());
            else
                list2 = zipped.get(i);
            list2.add(list.get(i));
        }
    }
    return zipped;
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
        List x = Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3);
        List y = Arrays.asList(4, 5, 6);
        List> zipped = zip(x, y);
        System.out.println(zipped);
}

Prints

[[1, 4], [2, 5], [3, 6]]