CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpfunction
Templar
Templar

Reputation: 1871

Returning two values as function to two different variables in php

function foo($a)
{
    $b = ...;
    $c = ...;
    return (both b and c);
}

and so I could get $b value to $first and $c value to $second

I know you can return more than 1 variable by return array($b,$c) but then it should be $var[0] and $var[1] and then I need to type $first = $var[0] and $second = $var[1] and so I'm creating more useless variables

So is it possible to do so without array?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 78

Answers (4)

shiying yu
shiying yu

Reputation: 103

No, it can't.

But you can still return an array from function, but use "list" to accept the result for convenient:

list ($first, $second) = foo ($a);

Upvotes: 2

Tania Petsouka
Tania Petsouka

Reputation: 1424

The only alternative to avoid returning an array is to return an object, or serialized data, but you don't "win" something from that.

Upvotes: 0

usoban
usoban

Reputation: 5478

No, you cannot to that. Function returns only one result.

What you can do, if possible in you case, is pass a variable by reference. 

function foo($a, &$b, &$c){
 $b = ...;
 $c = ...;
}

The following will make changes to $b and $c visible outside of the function scope.

Upvotes: 1

Oliver Charlesworth
Oliver Charlesworth

Reputation: 272802

Fundamentally, functions only have one return value. You could return a class with member variables first and second, or an associative array with keys "first" and "second", but you'll still only be returning a single object.*

Alternatively, you could references to $first and $second into your function:

function foo($a, &$b, &$c)
{
    $b = ...;
    $c = ...;
}

foo(42, $first, $second);

I'm not a big fan of this approach, though, because it's not immediately clear from the call-site that $first and $second are going to be modified.

* Note that if you return an array, you can always use the short-hand list($first,$second) = foo(42);.

Upvotes: 2

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