Access an Array Returned by a Function

Question

Is there anyway to directly access the data returned in an array without a temporary variable?

Currently, my code is as follows:

function getData($id) {
    // mysql query
    return mysql_fetch_array($result);
}

$data = getData($id);
echo $data['name'];

Is there a direct way to get the returned data without the temporary variable?

Solution 1

PHP 5.4 added array Dereferencing, here's the example from PHP's Array documentation:

Example #7 Array dereferencing

function getArray() {
    return array(1, 2, 3);
}

// on PHP 5.4
$secondElement = getArray()[1];

// previously
$tmp = getArray();
$secondElement = $tmp[1];

Solution 2

with arrays the answer is no, but you can use objects:

function getData($id) {
   // mysql query
   return mysql_fetch_object($result);
}

echo getData($id)->name;

Solution 3

Not really. You could define a function to do it, though:

function array_value($array, $key) {
    return $array[$key];
}

// and then
echo array_value(getData($id), 'name');

The only other way, which probably won't help you much in this case, is to use list() which will get you the first n items in the returned array. You have to know the order of the items in the list beforehand, though:

function test() {
    return array(1, 2, 3, 4);
}

list($one, $two, $three) = test();
// now $one is 1, $two is 2, $three is 3

Solution 4

I have asked a similar question some time ago.

The short answer is no, you can not. Yet, if you just need the first value in the array, you can use reset():

function getArray()
{
    array('la', 'li', 'lu');
}
echo reset(getArray()); // echos "la"

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