How do you return multiple values from a for loop in Java using a return statement?

Question

I would like to send multiple values from my getMultiples method to my main method using a return statement and no print or println statements.

public class StaticMethods {
   public static void main (String[] args) {     
      int a = 6;
      int b = 9;
      int result = getMultiple(a,b);
      System.out.println(result + "\n")

      System.out.println("The first " + a + " multiples of " + b + " are: ");
      int p = getMultiples(a,b);



   }
   public static int getMultiple(int a,int b) {
      return (int) (a * b);
   }
   public static int getMultiples(int a, int b) {
      int p = 0;
      for (int i = 1; i <= a; i++) {
         p = getMultiple(a,i);
      }
      return (p);
   }   
}

I have tried putting the return statement in the for loop but it does not work.

Answer 1

In Java as soon as return is encountered in the code, method is removed from execution stack and flow is returned back to calling method. So you can not return multiple values from a method. Rather you should create a list/array and return that as below(array example):

public class StaticMethods {
   public static void main (String[] args) {     
      int a = 6;
      int b = 9;
      int result = getMultiple(a,b);
      System.out.println(result + "\n");

      System.out.println("The first " + a + " multiples of " + b + " are: ");
      int p[] = getMultiples(a,b);



   }
   public static int getMultiple(int a,int b) {
      return (int) (a * b);
   }
   public static int[] getMultiples(int a, int b) {
      int[] p = new int[a];
      for (int i = 1; i <= a; i++) {
         p[i-1] = getMultiple(a,i);
      }
      return p;
   }   
}