8.18. Dereferencing Object Return Values
If you call a function that returns an object, you can treat the return value of that function as an object from the calling line and access it directly. For example:
$lassie = new Dog( );
$collar = $lassie->getCollar( );
echo $collar->Name;
$poppy = new Dog( );
echo $poppy->getCollar( )->Name;
In the first example, we need to call getCollar( ) and save the returned value into $collar, before echoing out the Name property of $collar. In the second example, we use the return value from getCollar( ) immediately from within the same line of code, and echo out Name without an intermediate property like $collar.
 | For now at least, return value dereferencing only applies to objects. If you have a function someFunc( ) that returns an array, for example, using $obj->someFunc( )[3] to access an element in the return value will cause a parse erroryou need to store the return value in another property, then access it. |
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