Question

I have a very, very messed up method. I want to return ints from a handler. My code is like this:

public void getCasesFromFolder() {

    msg = handler.obtainMessage();


    timer.schedule(new TimerTask(){
          public void run(){
              if(folder.list().length == 0)  {
                  msg.obj = "0";
                  handler.sendMessage(msg);
              }

              else {
                    msg.obj = Integer.toString(folder.list().length) ;
                    handler.sendMessage(msg);
              }

          }
    }, delay, 3000);
}

private Handler handler = new Handler() {

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    @Override
    public void handleMessage(Message m) {

        String message = (String) m.obj;
        if(message.equals("0")) {
            returnValues(0); 
        }
        else {
            returnValues(Integer.parseInt(message));
        }

    }

    public int returnValues(int i) {

        if(i == 0)
            return 0;
        else
            return i; 

    }
};

This doesn’t work, of course. How can I return a int from a handler?

Answer 1

Create an int attribute in the class, and make your handler set its value in handleMessage() method instead of returning it.

By the way your returnValues() method is completely useless as it can be simplified to just return i; which does nothing but return the parameter.