Question

If I have a function in php that creates several arrays of objects from parsing xml, how do I return those arrays as references?

Do I need to call new to allocate the arrays? How do I define them within the function?

function ParseConfig($rawxml, &$configName, &$radioArr, &$flasherArr, &$irdArr)

Sorry, I mean return multiple arrays as parameter references.

what do I do to create the array inside the function? or can I just start using it as an array?

Answer 1

I hadn’t noticed that you edited your question, which changes things entirely. You have two decent options here:

1. Explicitly change them at the top of the function:

   function foo($bar, &$baz, &$qux) {
       $baz = $qux = array();
   }
   

2. Perhaps this is a good place to introduce an object?

   class parseConfig {
       protected $rawXml;
       protected $configName;
       protected $radioArr   = array();
       protected $flasherArr = array();
       protected $irdArr     = array();
   
       public function __construct($raw_xml = null) {
           if (!is_null($raw_xml)) {
               $this->rawXml = $raw_xml;
               $this->parse();
           }
       }
   
       public function parse($raw_xml = null) {
           if (!is_null($raw_xml)) {
               $this->rawXml = $raw_xml;
           }
   
           if (empty($this->rawXml)) {
               return null;
           }
   
           $this->configName = '';
           $this->radioArr   =
           $this->flasherArr =
           $this->irdArr     = array();
   
           // parsing happens here, may return false
   
           return true;
       }
   
       public function setRawXml($raw_xml) {
           $this->rawXml = $raw_xml;
           return $this;
       }
   
       public function getRawXml() {
           return $this->rawXml;
       }
   
       public function getRadioArr() {
           return $this->radioArr;
       }
   
       public function getFlasherArr() {
           return $this->flasherArr;
       }
   
       public function getIrdArr() {
           return $this->irdArr;
       }
   }