PHP: Can I reference a single member of an array that is returned by a function?

Question

any idea how if the following is possible in PHP as a single line ?:

... It doesn

Answer 1

You can use array_slice(), like so:

$elementX = array_slice(functionThatReturnsAnArray(), $x, 1);

Also noticed that end() is not mentioned. It returns the last element of an array.

Answer 2

Sometimes I'll change the function, so it can optionally return an element instead of the entire array:

<?php
function functionThatReturnsAnArray($n = NULL) {
  return ($n === NULL ? $myArray : $myArray[$n]);
}
$firstElement = functionThatReturnsAnArray(0);

Answer 3

@Scott Reynen

that's not true. This will work:

list(,,$thirdElement) = $myArray;

Answer 4

I think any of the above would require a comment to explain what you're doing, thus becoming two lines. I find it simpler to do:

$element = functionThatReturnsArray();
$element = $element[0];

This way, you're not using an extra variable and it's obvious what you're doing.

Answer 5

As far as I know this is not possible, I have wanted to do this myself several times.