Access array element from function call in php

Question

function array_test()  
{ 
    return array(0, 1, 2); 
}  

echo array_test()[0];

Can anyone explain why this code doesn't work?

Answer 1

EDIT: apparently, array dereferencing has been added now:

• http://svn.php.net/viewvc?view=revision&revision=300266

---

Original Answers:

Because there is no array dereferencing in PHP.

Quoting myself:

This has been been asked already before. The answer is no. It is not possible.

To quote Andi Gutmans on this topic:

This is a well known feature request but won't be supported in PHP 5.0. I can't tell you if it'll ever be supported. It requires some research and a lot of thought.

You can also find this request a number of times in the PHP Bugtracker. For technical details, I suggest you check the official RFC and/or ask on PHP Internals.

Answer 2

You can't chain expressions like that in PHP, so you'll have to save the result of array_test() in a variable.

Try this:

function array_test() {
  return array(0, 1, 2);
}

$array = array_test();
echo $array[0];