As of PHP 5.4 it is possible to array dereference the result of a function or method call directly.
Before it was only possible using a temporary variable.
As of PHP 5.5 it is possible to array dereference an array literal.
<?php function getArray() { return array(1, 2, 3, 4); } // on PHP 5.4 $secondElement = getArray()[1]; // earlier $temp = getArray(); $secondElement = $temp[1]; ?>