Hello,

Is it possible to do something like this in PHP?


<?
function test () {
$foo = "hello";
$bar = "bye";
return $foo, $bar;
}

$a, $b = test();
echo "a = $a, b = $b";
?>


This gives parse errors, but maybe there is another way in PHP to handle this? Anyone has any ideas why/why not this should be possible?

Just a thought, maybe:

return($foo, $bar);

or

return($foo $bar);

Try something like this ;)

This should work:


<?php
function test()
{
$foo = "hello";
$bar = "bye";
return array($foo, $bar);
}

list($a, $b) = test();
print "a = $a, b = $b";
?>

return() can only return one item, but that item may be an array. inverus' example will work.

More info: http://www.php.net/manual/en/functions.returning-values.php

I don't know much of php... but i know in C++ there is a pass thru code.... like instead of a return you would have function test(int &var1, int &var2) The & sign tells the computer to take in two variables and return the new value in the main function. hope it helps... anyone tell me if i am wrong

Is it something you can use a class for as the variables would be global to the class... still you can only return one variable but you could actually have your output as a function within that class and thus make use of more than one variable.

You can do several things, serialize it, store it into a session variable, or return an array.

Serializing would involve turning the array into a string, this is old school, but is still done quite often, more so when arrays need to be stored into mySQL.

You could do it as follows:


function test(){
$string = 'hello'.':'.'bye';
return $string;
}

and in the calling function perform this:


$array = explode( ':', test() );

foreach( $array as $val ){
echo $val.'<br>';
}

You can try to pass the variables by reference.


<?php
function test(&$foo, &$bar)
{
$foo = "hello";
$bar = "bye";
}
test($foo,$bar);
print "foo = $foo, bar = $bar";
?>

You could also use an array:


<?
function test () {
$arr[foo] = "hello";
$arr[bar] = "bye";
return $arr;
}

$arr = test();
echo "a = $arr[foo], b = $arr[bar]";
?>

i was just gonna say, use an array. personally, i think arrays are the best think about most programing languages, all that data you can store. :D

this function is something i made awhile ago for a news site. the first function returns an array,
the 2nd shows you how to read it. the bet part is, it sahows you how to store an array within an array :D




function get_topic_id($post_id){
include("../includes/include.inc");
$sql=mysql_connect($dbhost,$dbuser,$dbpasswd);
mysql_select_db($dbname2);
$retid=mysql_db_query($dbname2,"SELECT * FROM phpbb_posts",$sql);
$r=mysql_numrows($retid);
$i=0;
while($i!=$r){
$tmp_post_id=@mysql_result($retid,$i,"post_id");
$topic_id_num=@mysql_result($retid,$i,"topic_id");
$post_time=@mysql_result($retid,$i,"post_time");
$poster_id=@mysql_result($retid,$i,"poster_id");
if ($tmp_post_id==$post_id){
mysql_close($sql);
$total[0]=$topic_id_num;
$total[1]=getdate($post_time);
$total[2]=get_user_name($poster_id);
$total[3]=$poster_id;
return $total;
}
$i++;
}
@mysql_close($sql);
return 0;
}





$tmp_total=get_topic_id($post_id);
$topic_id=$tmp_total[0];
$tmp_day=$tmp_total[1];
$day=$tmp_day['mon'];
$day.="/";
$day.=$tmp_day['mday'];
$day.="/";
$day.=$tmp_day['year'];
$attime=$tmp_day['hours'];
if (date('I')==0){
$attime--;
}
if ($attime>12){
$attime=$attime-12;
}
if ($tmp_day['hours']>=12){
$m="pm";
}else{
$m="am";
}
$attime.=":";
if (strlen($tmp_day['minutes'])==1){
$attime.="0";
$attime.=$tmp_day['minutes'];
}else{
$attime.=$tmp_day['minutes'];
}
$sql1=mysql_connect($dbhost,$dbuser,$dbpasswd);
echo "<li><font size=\"1\"><a target=\"blank\"
href=\"http://forums.********.net/viewtopic.php?t=$topic_id\">
<b>$post_subject</b></a><b> by</b></font> <a target=\"blank\"
href=\"http://forums.********.net/profile.php?
mode=viewprofile&u=$tmp_total[3]\"><font color=\"#808080\"><b>
$tmp_total[2]</b></font></a><font color=\"#FFFFFF\"
size=\"1\"><b> on $day @ $attime$m</b></font></li>";
$c++;
}
if ($c>=$count){
break;
}
$r--;
}
echo "</ul>";
mysql_close($sql1);
}