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2

I have a function and I need it to return two arrays.

I know a function can only return one variable .. is there a way to return my two arrays?

If I concatenate them, how can I separate them cleanly when out of the function?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 20 down vote accepted

No need to concatenate: just return array of two arrays, like this:

function foo() {
    return array($firstArray, $secondArray);
}

... then you will be able to assign these arrays to the local variables with list, like this:

list($firstArray, $secondArray) = foo();

And if you work with PHP 5.4, you can use array shortcut syntax here as well: 

function foo54() {
    return [$firstArray, $secondArray];
}
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thanks very much! –  lleoun Nov 22 '12 at 8:55
1  
+1 to gain nice answer :) –  Ja͢ck Nov 23 '12 at 11:45
    
Excellent, thank you! –  James Huckabone Oct 7 '13 at 17:18
up vote 2 down vote

I think raina77ow's answer adequately answers your question. Another option to consider is to use write parameters.

function foobar(array &$arr1 = null)
{
    if (null !== $arr1) {
        $arr1 = array(1, 2, 3);
    }

    return array(4, 5, 6);
}

Then, to call:

$arr1 = array();
$arr2 = foobar($arr1);

This won't be useful if you always need to return two arrays, but it can be used to always return one array and return the other only in certain cases.

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