Java: Method that returns either String or int

Question

A part of a small program I am coding:

String maxs = "";
int maxi = 0;

At this part I defined two variables as int and String.

public Class(String max){
   try {
           this.maxi = Integer.parseInt(max);
       }catch (Exception e){
           this.maxs = max;
       }
}

I think this way I will get to define one of both variables, if the String does not parse to int it will be saved as normal String.

Now I need to check what I need to return:

private TypeOfReturn getMax(){
    if(this.maxi == 0){
        // return maxs (return String)
    } else if (this.maxs.equals("")) {
        // return maxi (return int)
    } else return null;
}

The quastion is, how do I fill the missing parts of the method getMax()?

Is it even possiable in Java?

Answer 1

Use Object instead of TypeOfReturn You can change the TypeoOfReturn to Object and then return the respective types.