How to access the elements of a function's return array?

Question

I need to return multiple values from a function, therefore I have added them to an array and returned the array.

Answer 1

$array  = data();

print_r($array);

Answer 2

here is the best way in a similar function

 function cart_stats($cart_id){

$sql = "select sum(price) sum_bids, count(*) total_bids from carts_bids where cart_id = '$cart_id'";
$rs = mysql_query($sql);
$row = mysql_fetch_object($rs);
$total_bids = $row->total_bids;
$sum_bids = $row->sum_bids;
$avarage = $sum_bids/$total_bids;

 $array["total_bids"] = "$total_bids";
 $array["avarage"] = " $avarage";

 return $array;
}  

and you get the array data like this

$data = cart_stats($_GET['id']); 
<?=$data['total_bids']?>

Answer 3

In order to get the values of each variable, you need to treat the function as you would an array:

function data() {
    $a = "abc";
    $b = "def";
    $c = "ghi";
    return array($a, $b, $c);
}

// Assign a variable to the array; 
// I selected $dataArray (could be any name).

$dataArray = data();
list($a, $b, $c) = $dataArray;
echo $a . " ". $b . " " . $c;

//if you just need 1 variable out of 3;
list(, $b, ) = $dataArray;
echo $b;