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How to return three values from a function in c#?

Hi Experts,

I am writing a function which should return three string values and my code looks like this.

private String GetAttDataType(string dt)
        {
         
             string attDa = null;
             string attDe = null;
           string attDep = null;
            string ConString = "User Id=sys;Password=sys;Data Source=T";
            using (OracleConnection con = new OracleConnection(ConString))
            {
                OracleDataAdapter adapter = new OracleDataAdapter();
                con.Open();
                OracleCommand command = new OracleCommand("SELECT ATT_DATATYPE,ATT_DEFVALUE, DONID FROM T.ATTRIBUTES WHERE ATTRIBUTE_NUMBER=" + dt, con);
                
                    adapter.SelectCommand = command;
                    DataSet dataset = new DataSet("ATTDATATYPE1");
                    adapter.Fill(dataset);
                    foreach (DataRow dr in dataset.Tables[0].Rows)
                    {
                        attDataType=dr["ATT_DATATYPE"].ToString();
                        attDefValue = dr["ATT_DEFVALUE"].ToString();
                        attDependsOnID = dr["DONID"].ToString();
                        }
                    con.Close();
                }
            return attDa;
        }

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Is there any work around for this? Or Can you please share some ideas on how to resolve it?

Thanks,

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

p_davis

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AndyAinscow

A function can only return one value - but it is up to you what type of object that is, it could be a class.

An alternative is to use the parameter list (either as ref or as out keywords), see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee332485.aspx

roughly
string dt1, dt2, dt3
GetAttDataType(dt1, dt2, dt3)

and
private void GetAttDataType(out string dt1, out string dt2, out string dt3)
{
//now fill in the values into dt1, dt2 and dt3
}

quizwedge

As p_davis suggested, using a tuple would work (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.tuple(v=vs.110).aspx)

If for some reason a tuple doesn't work, you could also
1. Return an array
2. Return a string separated by some delimiter such as |and use String.Split (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/tabh47cf(v=vs.110).aspx)
3. Change your function to use pass by reference variables (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0f66670z.aspx) You would then pass in three additional strings to your function and set those. The code that calls this function would have the values.

Tuple is best, but providing a few other options just in case. Order preference would probably be tuple, array, delimited string, and, only if you have to, reference variables.