explode without variables [duplicate]

Answer 1

As the oneliners say, you'll have to wait for array dereferencing to be supported. A common workaround nowadays is to define a helper function for that d($array,0).

In your case you probably shouldn't be using the stupid explode in the first place. There are more appropriate string functions in PHP. If you just want the first part:

echo strtok("hello.world.!", ".");