Can you set multiple variables at once in PHP as you can using Java?

Question

I want to create 5 variables of an array of types at once. Is it possible? In Java, I know that you can, but cannot find anything about PHP. I would like to do something like this:

$var1, $var2, $var3, $var4, $var5 = array(); 

Answer 1

Yes, you can.

 $a = $b = $c = $d = array(); 

Answer 2

 $c = $b = $a; 

equivalently

 $b = $a; $c = $b; 

so:

 $var1 = $var2 = $var3 = $var4= $var5 = array(); 

Answer 3

 $var1 = $var2 = $var3 = $var4= $var5 = array(); 

Answer 4

Starting with PHP 7.1, you can use the syntax in square brackets :

 [$var1, $var2, $var3, $var4, $var5] = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5); 

[1] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/short_list_syntax
[2] https://secure.php.net/manual/de/migration71.new-features.php#migration71.new-features.symmetric-array-destructuring

Answer 5

I prefer to use the list function for this task. Actually, this is not a function, but a language construct used to assign a list of variables in one operation.

list( $var1, $var2, $var3 ) = array('coffee', 'brown', 'caffeine');

See the documentation for more information.