diff --git a/src/Task.cpp b/src/Task.cpp
index c0aaf4338..2b9c2eb15 100644
--- a/src/Task.cpp
+++ b/src/Task.cpp
@@ -1336,12 +1336,15 @@ void Task::removeTag (const std::string& tag)
 #ifdef PRODUCT_TASKWARRIOR
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 // A UDA Orphan is an attribute that is not represented in context.columns.
-void Task::getUDAOrphans (std::vector <std::string>& names) const
+std::vector <std::string> Task::getUDAOrphanUUIDs () const
 {
+  std::vector <std::string> orphans;
   for (auto& it : data)
     if (it.first.compare (0, 11, "annotation_", 11) != 0)
       if (context.columns.find (it.first) == context.columns.end ())
-        names.push_back (it.first);
+        orphans.push_back (it.first);
+
+  return orphans;
 }
 
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
diff --git a/src/Task.h b/src/Task.h
index b4cf6d336..5ac4b8b7e 100644
--- a/src/Task.h
+++ b/src/Task.h
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ public:
   void getDependencies (std::vector <std::string>&) const;
   void getDependencies (std::vector <Task>&) const;
 
-  void getUDAOrphans (std::vector <std::string>&) const;
+  std::vector <std::string> getUDAOrphanUUIDs () const;
 
   void substitute (const std::string&, const std::string&, const std::string&);
 #endif
diff --git a/src/commands/CmdEdit.cpp b/src/commands/CmdEdit.cpp
index 9e6b52e80..580f73216 100644
--- a/src/commands/CmdEdit.cpp
+++ b/src/commands/CmdEdit.cpp
@@ -312,9 +312,7 @@ std::string CmdEdit::formatTask (Task task, const std::string& dateformat)
   }
 
   // UDA orphans
-  std::vector <std::string> orphans;
-  task.getUDAOrphans (orphans);
-
+  auto orphans = task.getUDAOrphanUUIDs ();
   if (orphans.size ())
   {
     before << "# " << STRING_EDIT_UDA_ORPHAN_SEP << '\n';