Can a PHP function return a lot of vars?

Question

Can a PHP function return a lot of vars without array?

I want like that:

<?php

public function a()
{
   $a = "a";
   $b = "b";
   $c = "c";

}

echo a()->a;
echo a()->b;
echo a()->c;

?>

How can I access to $a,$b,$c vars?

Answer 1

Instead of an array, you could use an associative array and cast it to an object, which allows you to access the elements using the -> object syntax:

function a()
{
  return (object) array(
    'a' => "a",
    'b' => "b",
    'c' => "c");
}

echo a()->a;  // be aware that you are calling a() three times here
echo a()->b;
echo a()->c;

Answer 2

function a1() {
    return array(
        'a' => 'a',
        'b' => 'b',
        'c' => 'c'
    );
}
$a1 = a1();
echo $a1['a'];
echo $a1['b'];
echo $a1['c'];

function a2() {
    $result = new stdClass();
    $result->a = "a";
    $result->b = "b";
    $result->c = "c";
    return $result;
}
$a2 = a2();
echo $a2->a;
echo $a2->b;
echo $a2->c;
// or - but that'll result in three function calls! So I don't think you really want this.
echo a2()->a;
echo a2()->b;
echo a2()->c;

Answer 3

http://php.net/manual/en/function.list.php

Answer 4

Create a class that holds your 3 variables and return an instance of the class. Example:

<?php
class A {
    public $a;
    public $b;
    public $c;

    public function __construct($a, $b, $c) {
        $this->a = $a;
        $this->b = $b;
        $this->c = $c;
    }
}

function a() {
    return new A("a", "b", "c");
}

echo a()->a;
echo a()->b;
echo a()->c;
?>

Of course the last 3 lines are not particularly efficient because a() gets called 3 times. A sensible refactoring would result in those 3 lines being changed to:

$a = a();
echo $a->a;
echo $a->b;
echo $a->c;