What is the best way to organize Java code since you can't pass by reference?

Question

I'm learning how to code in Java after after coming from C. In C I always separated everything into individual functions to make the code easier to follow and edit. I was trying to do this in java but now since I realized that you can't use pointers, I am a bit confused as to what the best way to do this is.

So for example I want to have a method that creates four alerts for me. So I pass it an alert builder that can then create the alerts. I can return them in an array, but in my code I already have the alerts individually named, and I would like to keep it that way so I wouldn't need to refer to them as alert[1], alert[2]... etc.

So that means I would have to rename them, which would add additional code which would probably be longer than the code in the actual method!

Am I thinking about this the right way? Is there anything I can do?

-Edit-

        AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);

        builder.setMessage(this.getString(R.string.ache_Q_text))
               .setPositiveButton("OK", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                   public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {dialog.cancel();}
               });

        final AlertDialog ache_Q_alert = builder.create();

        builder.setMessage(this.getString(R.string.food_Q_text));
        final AlertDialog food_Q_alert = builder.create();

        builder.setMessage(this.getString(R.string.event_Q_text));
        final AlertDialog event_Q_alert = builder.create();

        builder.setMessage(this.getString(R.string.ache_Q_text));
        final AlertDialog ache_type_Q_alert = builder.create();

and instead replace it with

createAlerts();

and have that code off somewhere to the side.

Answer 1

It sounds like you want to have a method create four objects for you and return them. You have a few options:

1. Modify your method to create only one object, and call it four times, e.g.

Alert foo = createOneAlert(x,y,z);
Alert bar = createOneAlert(a,b,c);
// etc.

2. Create a data structure to hold your alerts:

public class Alerts {
  private final Alert foo;
  private final Alert bar;
  private final Alert baz;
  private final Alert quux;

  public Alerts(Alert foo, Alert bar, Alert baz, Alert quux) {
    this.foo = foo;
    this.bar = bar;
    this.baz = baz;
    this.quux = quux;
  }

  public Alert getFoo() { return foo; }
  // etc.

}

public Alerts makeAlerts(AlertBuilder builder) {
  return new Alerts(
    builder.buildAlert(a,b,c),
    builder.buildAlert(d,e,f),
    builder.buildAlert(g,h,i),
    builder.buildAlert(x,y,z));  
}

It may be more verbose but a) that's Java and b) verbosity can be a good thing