Is it possible to determine if the data being sent back from an activity is a String or String[]?

Question

I am launching an activityForResult() from my MainActivity. Depending one the option the user selects in the SecondActivity it returns either a String or a String[]. In my MainActivity I override onActivityResult(), but how can I test the returned data first to see if it's a String or String[] so I can handle it accordingly?

This is how I'm handling the Array:

protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
            // TODO Auto-generated method stub

                    String[] result =data.getStringArrayExtra("elements");
                    et.setText("");
                    for(int i=0;i<result.length;i++){
                        et.append(result[i].toString());
            }
            }

Answer 1

Why not always return a String[] from the SecondActivity? If there is only a single String, simply return a String [] with that one String in it. This seems like bad design to return two different types of objects with the same key...

Answer 2

I would put those in different key. Something like element to the String, and elements to a String[].

String[] result =data.getStringArrayExtra("elements");
if(result == null)
   String strResult = data.getStringExtra("element");

I also supports what Steven said. But don't know the design of your app and the reason you do it like that, so you have to make the choice.