#18842 [Bgs]: cloning functions improperly, creates references and not copies

ID: 18842 User updated by: ben-bugs.php.net@efros.com Reported By: ben-bugs.php.net@efros.com Status: Bogus Bug Type: Zend Engine 2 problem Operating System: linux PHP Version: 4CVS-2002-08-10 New Comment: Shouldn't "=" be a "copy / assign" operation and "$var1=&$var2" be a reference the original operation? This change will break backward compatibility with existing php applications, but more importantly it will confuse developers between the differences of object copies and variable copies. IMHO, I think this issue is being handled wrong. __clone() should be called by default when assigning via "=" Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-08-10 07:23:58] wez@php.net in ZE2: $x = $y; // when is_object($y), make $x a reference to $y $x = $y->__clone(); // make a copy of $y It should say that in the Zend/ZEND_CHANGES file. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-08-10 02:21:49] ben-bugs.php.net@efros.com I guess that if I explicitly call __clone(), everything goes okay. I guess the problem is that it thinks I mean make reference when using the "equals" assignment .... ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2002-08-10 02:15:59] ben-bugs.php.net@efros.com class tmp { var $tmp = ''; function __construct($t) { $this->tmp=$t; } } $x = new tmp(4); $y = $x; echo "x = ".$x->tmp."<BR>\n"; /* prints 4 */ echo "y = ".(++$y->tmp)."<BR>\n"; /* prints 5 */ echo "x = ".$x->tmp."<BR>\n"; /* prints 5, but should be 4 still */ I guess the $y is still referencing the $x class ... Also, if I create __clone(), it doesn't appear to execute. This was tested on CVS 2002-8-8 SAPI and also 4.3.0 alpha 2 CLI ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=18842&edit=1