What is the best way to return two lists in C#?

Question

I am almost embarrassed to ask this question, but as a long time C programmer I feel that perhaps I am not aware of the best way to do this in C#.

I have a member fu

Answer 1

First of all, that should probably be out, not ref.

Second, you can declare and return a type containing the two lists.

Third, you can declare a generic Tuple and return an instance of that:

class Tuple {
   public Tuple(T first, U second) { 
       First = first;
       Second = second;
   }
   public T First { get; private set; }
   public U Second { get; private set; }
}

static class Tuple {
   // The following method is declared to take advantage of
   // compiler type inference features and let us not specify
   // the type parameters manually.
   public static Tuple Create(T first, U second) {
        return new Tuple(first, second);
   }
}

return Tuple.Create(firstList, secondList);

You can extend this idea for different number of items.