Java Cookbook

Passing Values

Problem

You need to pass a number like an int into a routine, and get back the routine’s updated version of that value in addition to the routine’s return value.

This often comes up in working through strings; the routine may need to return a boolean, say, or the number of characters transferred, but also needs to increment an integer array or string index in the calling class.

It is also useful in constructors, which can’t return a value but may need to indicate that they have “consumed” or processed a certain number of characters from within a string, such as when the string will be further processed in a subsequent call.

Solution

Use a specialized class such as the one presented here.

Discussion

The Integer class is one of Java’s predefined Number subclasses, mentioned in the Introduction to Chapter 5. It serves as a wrapper for an int value, and also has static methods for parsing and formatting integers.

It’s fine as it is, but you may want something simpler.

Here is a class I wrote, called MutableInteger , that is like an Integer but specialized by omitting the overhead of Number and providing only the set, get, and incr operations, the latter overloaded to provide a no-argument version that performs the increment (++) operator on its value, and also a one-integer version that adds that increment into the value (analogous to the += operator). Since Java doesn’t support operator overloading, the calling class has to call these methods instead of invoking the operations ...