can a PHP function return more than 1 value ??

[truegilly]

Hi there,

im a total newbie with php and was wondering if a php function can return more than one value.

the function below will return a variable that contains the name of a colour. in the function i have queried my database and stored values in the variables [color=red]$Target [/color]and [color=red]$Actual[/color].

it would be nice to be able to return more values than just the return, and was wondering if this is possible.

below is my function

[code]function consolidate(){

//perform query
$query = 'SELECT Target_No_Of_VC10, Actual_No_Of_VC10 FROM vc10_node';
$result = mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error());

// get a single row from the database
$row = mysql_fetch_row($result);

$Target = $row[0];
$Actual = $row[1];
$colour = null;

// simple function

if ($Target == $Actual)
{
$colour = "green";
return $colour;
}
else if ($Actual < $Target)
{
$colour = "red";
return $colour;
}
else {
$Actual > $Target;
$colour = "blue";
return $colour;
}
}[/code]

what i would like to do is return the value of the the variables $target and $actual without having to write a new function.

any help would be appreciated.

truegilly

[Jessica]

you can send it back in an array
$ret['target'] = $target;
$ret['actual'] = $actual;
return $ret

[onlyican]

you can, return an array, and use that data

for example

[code=php:0]
function MyFunction(){
$MyName = "Jamie";
$MyCountry = "UK";

return array($MyName, $MyCountry);
}

list($MyName, $MyCountry) = MyFunction();

echo $MyName."<br />\n"
.$MyCountry."<br />\n";

[/code]

[truegilly]

thanks ill give these suggestions a try !

truegilly  ;)

[truegilly]

Hi Guys,

thanks for the reply's...

had a go and it is returning values but i am getting letters coming back rather than numbers, which is what they are set to in my database.

the target is set to 5 ($Target)
and the actual is set to 6 ($Actual)

any ideas why this is happening ??

any help is most appreciated !!  ???

[Jessica]

How are you trying to access them?

[redbullmarky]

now you're returning an array, make sure you're accessing the return result's elements, not the whole thing.

[code]
<?php
$ret = consolidate();

// correct
echo $ret['actual'];
echo $ret['target'];

// not correct
echo $ret;
?>
[/code]