How do I return a dynamically casted list?

Question

So I have the below code which I created that dynamically creates and runs a query, and stores it within a type casted List. But I cannot figure out how to get it to work with the initial declaration 'public List'.

Is there a way to properly return the generated and casted list so that I can use it pass it into another function?

Thanks!

public List<SObject> queryObjectByName(Summary_Reporting__c sr)
{
    //dynamic type casting of lists
    String listType = 'List<' + sr.Object_to_Summarize__c + '>';
    List<SObject> toCalc = (List<SObject>)Type.forName(listType).newInstance();

    Try
    {
        String sel = '[SELECT Id, Name, ';
        String selpt2 = 'FROM ' + sr.Object_to_Summarize__c + ' ';
        String fieldToCalculate;
        String selWhere = 'WHERE Date_Closed__c >= : sr.Period_Start__c and Date_Closed__c <= : sr.Period_End__c]';

        if(sr.Type__c != null) sel += sr.Type__c;
        if(sr.Object_to_Summarize__c == 'TASKRAY__Project_Task__c') fieldToCalculate = '(Time_to_Complete_minutes__c)aver';
        if(sr.Object_to_Summarize__c == 'IT_Request__c') fieldToCalculate = '(Time_Spent_minutes__c)aver';

        String generatedQuery = sel + fieldToCalculate + selpt2 + selWhere;
        System.debug('Generated Query :: ' + generatedQuery);

        List<SObject> returnList = (List<SObject>)Type.forName(listType).newInstance();
        returnList = database.query(generatedQuery);
        return returnList;

    }
     Catch(Exception E)
    {
        System.debug('Object Creation Exception :: ' + e);
    }
}

Edit: MavensMate tosses this at me:

 Non-void method might not return a value or might have statement after a return statement.
  (Line: it's the System.debug inside the catch statement.)

Read through this to figure out the dynamic List casting: Apex Cast sObject list dynamically to a specific sObject Type

Answer 1

To resolve the "non-void method might not return a value..." error, you must make sure you're returning a value (even null) during every possible code path. You'll see if you catch an exception, there's no further "return" statements. Adding "return null" in your catch block will work.