How do I Extract a Method That Assigns Two Values?

Extract Method (a refactoring from Fowler's book) works great if your method doesn't assign any values. If it assigns one value, that becomes the return value of the extracted method. What if it assigns two values?

Some C# code to illustrate:

private void someBigFunction() {
 doSomething();
 doSomethingElse();

 // start extraction here
 string first = Database.Select(...);
 // ...
 // next is dependent on the value of "first"
 int next = Database.Select(...);
 // ...
 // stop extraction here

 doMoreUselessStuff();
}

The exact code or values are not important here. The point is extracting this method. (The two values are linked, so it makes sense to have them in the same m开发者_运维知识库ethod -- and not to make two methods.)

Possible answers to this question would be "return both in an array," "return them both in a pair-like data structure," or "use out parameters (pass by reference)" -- but I'm looking for something cleaner. (The actual code is in Delphi, not C#)

Perhaps Sprout Class is what you're looking for. Make the two members instance variables of a new class and extract this method into that class, assigning the instance variables and providing getters for the caller. Or, of course, you could convert the local variables to be instance variables of the original class. That conversion frequently makes Extract Method easier, but you wind up with what is arguably an excess of instance variables. With Sprout class, you have a class whose only purpose is to retrieve and provide those values, so there's no question that they deserve to be instance variables in it.