Returning multiple values from a method in Objective-C

Question

I asked a similar question, but I couldn't get it working exactly. I'm building an iPhone app, and there is a method that I want called from different files. I figured the easiest way would simply be to make a method in another file, and call the method from the other files.

Here are some problems. I need to return multiple values from the method, after passing it multiple values. For example, I'm passing it: (int, int, int, string, string). And it needs to return all of those values, after they have been changed. Someone showed me this code:

- (NSDictionary *)EndOfTurn:(int)varTurns withFatness:(int)varFatness
{
    varTurns--;

    if (varTurns <= 0) {
        varFatness = varFatness - 5;
    }
    else {
        varFatness += 2;
    }

    return [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:[NSNumber numberWithInt:varFatness], @"FATNESS", [NSNumber numberWithInt:varTurns], @"TURNS", nil];

}

However, this code doesn't work, and I need some more information to really understand it. Let's assuming I'm passing it these values:

int varMoney;
int varNumSheep;
int varNumShepherds;
NSString *test1;
NSString *test2;

So I need to get all of these values back from the method.

How do I declare this in the header file? This should be in an Objective-C file, but could you give me the code for the entire file so I can see where it would go with the @implementation and @end, whatnot. Also, how would I call this method?

Answer 1

What about passing in the values as pointers?

For example:

- (void) getValuesForInt:(int *)int1 anotherInt:(int *)int2 aBool:(BOOL *)bool1 anotherBool:(BOOL *)bool2 {
  if (*int1 == 42 && *int2 == 0) {
    *int1 = 0;
    *int2 = 42;
  }
  if (*bool1 == NO) {
    *bool2 = YES;
  }
}

Then you can invoke it like:

int int1 = 42;
int int2 = 0;
BOOL bool1 = NO;
BOOL bool2 = NO;
[self getValuesForInt:&int1 anotherInt:&int2 aBool:&bool1 anotherBool:&bool2];
NSLog(@"int1: %d int2: %d bool1: %d bool2: %d", int1, int2, bool1, bool2);
//prints "int1: 0 int2: 42 bool1: 0 bool2: 1"

Edit:

This works equally well with objects. You'll often see this used when dealing with NSError objects:

NSError *error = nil;
[anObject doSomething:foo error:&error];

Can be implemented as:

- (void) doSomething:(id)terrible error:(NSError **)error {
  if ([terrible isEqual:reallyBad]) {
    if (error != nil) { *error = [NSError errorWithDomain:@"domain" code:42 userInfo:nil]; }
  }
}