Return type vararg?

Question

I have a method like:

void foo(int x, Grok... groks);

There's no way to define a method that returns a type of varargs, right? Ideally I want an additional util method:

foo(25, new Grok(), new Grok(), generateMoreGroks());

public Grok... generateMoreGroks() {
    return new Grok[] {
        new Grok(), new Grok(), new Grok() };
}

right?

---- More info --------------

The issue with the above is that we can't mix a few Grok instances allocated there with an array of Groks:

 "new Grok(), new Grok(), generateMoreGroks());"

and I don't think that's legal, unless you could define a method to return a type of vararg (I guess).

Thanks

Answer 1

You can do,

Grok[] generateMoreGroks() {

If a method takes a varargs parameter, it is the same as taking an array.

Now you need to overload foo to allow it to take some Grok instances, and the rest as varargs,

foo(int x, Grok... rest)
foo(int x, Grok g1, Grok... rest)
foo(int x, Grok g1, Grok g2, Grok... rest)
foo(int x, Grok g1, Grok g2, Grok g3, Grok... rest)

Where foo methods are like,

foo(int x, Grok g1, Grok... rest) {
     Grok[] groks = new Grok[rest.length + 1];
     groks[0] = g1;
     System.arrayCopy(rest, 0, groks, 1, rest.length);
     foo(x, groks);
}

This is a bit ugly.

Answer 2

No there isn't... but change the function signature and that will work just fine.

public Grok[] generateMoreGroks() {
    return new Grok[] {
        new Grok(), new Grok(), new Grok() };
}