Overview:

In PHP 7, when an anonymous object's method returns an array, it's possible to access the returned array elements directly by index (for an unkeyed array) or by key (for a keyed array). Given the following code,

<?php

class Produce 
{
    private $fruits = array('red'=>'apple', 'yellow'=>'banana');
    
    private $vegetables = array('beet', 'potato', 'zucchini');
    
    public function getFruits() {
        return $this->fruits;
    }
    
    public function getVegetables() {
        return $this->vegetables;
    }
}

$foo = ((new Produce())->getFruits())['yellow'];

$bar = ((new Produce())->getVegetables())[1];

var_dump($foo);
var_dump($bar);

?>

This assignment syntax is valid beginning with PHP 7.0; the output is:

string(6) "banana"
string(6) "potato"

(See: https://3v4l.org/9BLtr)

Actual Results:

NetBeans 8.2 doesn't recognize this syntax even when the project properties "PHP Version" is set to 7.0. It generates this error:

    Syntax error: unexpected [ after )

Expected Results:

No error message, syntax recognized as valid if the project "PHP Version" setting is set to 7.0 or higher