Question

Is it possible for a function or method in PHP to determine whether the caller expects an array return value or not (ala Perl’s wantarray operator)? Specifically, I’d like to create a __get() magic method that automatically returns an array if the caller expects one, and a sensible scalar value if not. So something like this:

public function __get($name)
{
    if (wantarray())
    {
        // data is stored internally as an array of arrays
        // return appropriate array as-is
        return $this->data[$name];  
    }
    else
    {
        // caller doesn't expect an array, return imploded string instead
        return implode(', ', $this->data[$name]);
    }
}

Basically, does PHP have an equivalent to Perl’s wantarray operator or otherwise allow for the determination of this sort of calling context?

Answer 1

No, You could not do this with PHP.

You just need to return $this->data[$name] and let the caller decide whether it is necessary to do implode or not.