Programming PHP, 3rd Edition

Return Values

PHP functions can return only a single value with the return keyword:

function returnOne()
{
  return 42;
}

To return multiple values, return an array:

function returnTwo()
{
   return array("Fred", 35);
}

If no return value is provided by a function, the function returns NULL instead.

By default, values are copied out of the function. To return a value by reference, both declare the function with an & before its name and when assigning the returned value to a variable:

$names = array("Fred", "Barney", "Wilma", "Betty");

function &findOne($n) {
   global $names;

   return $names[$n];
}

$person =& findOne(1);            // Barney
$person = "Barnetta";             // changes $names[1]

In this code, the findOne() function returns an alias for $names[1], instead of a copy of its value. Because we assign by reference, $person is an alias for $names[1], and the second assignment changes the value in $names[1].

This technique is sometimes used to return large string or array values efficiently from a function. However, PHP implements copy-on-write for variable values, meaning that returning a reference from a function is typically unnecessary. Returning a reference to a value is slower than returning the value itself.