Question

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?

Answer 1

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);.}