php 基本问题

function getRepositories() {
foreach ($this->_parentPaths as $parentPath) {
$parentRepos = $parentPath->getRepositories();}}
有段正确的代码
parentpath 明明是一个变量 怎么有了函数功能了？
$parentPath->getRepositories()到底返回了什么？

完整函数如下

function getRepositories() {
// lazily load parent paths
if ($this->_parentPathsLoaded) return $this->_repositories;

$this->_parentPathsLoaded = true;

foreach ($this->_parentPaths as $parentPath) {
$parentRepos = $parentPath->getRepositories();
foreach ($parentRepos as $repo) {
if (!$parentPath->getSkipAlreadyAdded()) {
$this->_repositories[] = $repo;
} else {
// we have to check if we already have a repo with the same svn name
$duplicate = false;
foreach ($this->_repositories as $knownRepos) {
if ($knownRepos->path == $repo->path && $knownRepos->subpath == $repo->subpath) {
$duplicate = true;
break;
}
}

if (!$duplicate && !in_array($repo->path, $this->_excluded, true)) {
$this->_repositories[] = $repo;
}
}
}
}

return $this->_repositories;
}

相关了解……