Return Array Element without Creating Variable

Question

I feel stupid for asking this cause it seems so basic but it's really bugging me.

I have a method that returns an array with a single element. I just want it to return the element not wrapped in an array. I tried this.

return $f->getValue()[0];

and it gives an error but if I save it to a variable, it works fine.

$v = $f->getValue();
return $v[0];

I can't figure it out....

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 07 '13 at 05:58

4

It's available only since PHP 5.4: http://codepad.viper-7.com/VHOW0o

answered Mar 07 '13 at 05:58

meze

14,975
4
47
52

Decent Dabbler · Answer 2 · 2013-03-07T06:05:30.117

4

What you are trying to do, is called array dereferencing, and is only possible in PHP as of version 5.4 (if you scroll up a few lines in the documentation article I linked to, you'll see it mentioned).

edited Mar 07 '13 at 06:05

answered Mar 07 '13 at 06:00

Decent Dabbler

22,532
8
74
106

kjetilh · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-07T06:49:19.940

2

Use reset().

<?php return reset( $f->getValue() ); ?>

Edit: reset() is probably superior to current() as it also makes sure that the internal pointer is reset, despite it not making much difference if the array only contains one element.

edited Mar 07 '13 at 06:49

answered Mar 07 '13 at 06:03

kjetilh

4,821
2
18
24

It's annoying that this requires a workaround... at least they fixed it in 5.4 – Saad Farooq Mar 08 '13 at 01:13

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 07 '13 at 05:56

1

As far as I know since you are returning an array you only can get an array. You can instead save the array to a variable in the class (accessible by $f->myArray) and then return just the string portion. Or the other option is to do what your second example is and return the array and retrieve the string from it.

answered Mar 07 '13 at 05:56

Sam

20,096
2
45
71

I may be wrong though. Why do you want to return an array if you only want the string? – Sam Mar 07 '13 at 06:01
It's a library... they are cases when it returns arrays of strings – Saad Farooq Mar 07 '13 at 21:37

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

0

have you tried this

         <?php
           return array_shift(array_values($array));
         ?>

Get the first element of an array

edited May 23 '17 at 12:04

Community

1
1

answered Mar 07 '13 at 06:11

srs

68
1
1
9

Return Array Element without Creating Variable

5 Answers5