What are the best practices for handling multiple return values from a PHP function?

When a PHP function needs to return multiple values, the common practice is to return an array or an object containing all the values. This allows for easy access to each individual value by key or property. Another approach is to use PHP's list() function to assign the returned values to separate variables. Both methods provide a clean and organized way to handle multiple return values from a function.

// Using an array to return multiple values
function getMultipleValues() {
    $value1 = 'First value';
    $value2 = 'Second value';
    
    return [$value1, $value2];
}

list($result1, $result2) = getMultipleValues();
echo $result1; // Output: First value
echo $result2; // Output: Second value