I have a deceptively simple scenario, and I want a simple solution, but it's not obvious which is "most correct" or "most Java".
Let's say I have a small authenticate(Client client) method in some class. The authentication could fail for a number of reasons, and I want to return a simple boolean for control flow, but also return a String message for the user. These are the possibilities I can think of:
- Return a boolean, and pass in a StringBuilder to collect the message. This is the closest to a C-style way of doing it.
- Throw an exception instead of returning false, and include the message. I don't like this since failure is not exceptional.
- Create a new class called AuthenticationStatus with the boolean and the String. This seems like overkill for one small method.
- Store the message in a member variable. This would introduce a potential race condition, and I don't like that it implies some state that isn't really there.
Any other suggestions?
Edit Missed this option off
- Return null for success - Is this unsafe?
Edit Solution:
I went for the most OO solution and created a small AuthenticationResult class. I wouldn't do this in any other language, but I like it in Java. I also liked the suggestionof returning an String[] since it's like the null return but safer. One advantage of the Result class is that you can have a success message with further details if required.