Bug #73261 [Nab]: Looping through array with pointer inadvertently breaks array.

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=73261&edit=1 ID: 73261 User updated by: randy at larsongroup dot org Reported by: randy at larsongroup dot org Summary: Looping through array with pointer inadvertently breaks array. Status: Not a bug Type: Bug Package: Arrays related Operating System: Tested on OSX and Ubuntu 12.04 PHP Version: 5.6.26 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Sorry. It was an ID10T mistake! Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-10-06 21:12:05] nikic@php.net Please see the red warning box on http://php.net/foreach :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2016-10-06 21:08:37] randy at larsongroup dot org Description: ------------ When you loop through an array with foreach and set the value as a pointer to the array value then the last element in the array will be set as a pointer to the second to last element of the array. Then if you loop through the array a second time you will see that the last value isn't there, but points to the second to last value. Test script: --------------- <?php $originalArray = array('Thor', 'The Hulk', 'Iron Man'); var_dump($originalArray); foreach ($originalArray as &$value) { echo $value."\n"; } echo "\nSecond time through loop\n"; foreach ($originalArray as $value) { echo $value."\n"; } // notice the last element is a pointer which it shouldn't be. echo "\n".var_dump($originalArray); Expected result: ---------------- array(3) { [0]=> string(4) "Thor" [1]=> string(8) "The Hulk" [2]=> string(8) "Iron Man" } Thor The Hulk Iron Man Second time through loop Thor The Hulk Iron Man array(3) { [0]=> string(4) "Thor" [1]=> string(8) "The Hulk" [2]=> string(8) "Iron Man" } Actual result: -------------- array(3) { [0]=> string(4) "Thor" [1]=> string(8) "The Hulk" [2]=> string(8) "Iron Man" } Thor The Hulk Iron Man Second time through loop Thor The Hulk The Hulk array(3) { [0]=> string(4) "Thor" [1]=> string(8) "The Hulk" [2]=> &string(8) "The Hulk" } ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=73261&edit=1