Re: Re: PHP 4.0 Bug #3647 Updated: Change to Global variablein Function Fails

AP>> I understand reference counting; I just was not aware that a GLOBAL AP>> declaration gives you a reference rather than the real thing. Obviously AP>> it was not that way in PHP3 as there were no reference assignments in AP>> PHP3 :-). Actually, every variable is a reference now, that's the meaning of "reference counting mechanism". That means, this also won't get what you'd expect: <? function f() { global $foo; unset($GLOBALS["foo"]); var_dump($foo); } $foo = 1; f(); ?> this will still print 1, because though you've destroyed reference in GLOBALS array, the local reference is still valid. In fact, this thing is very consistent, though it is not always works as you would expect. It works not unlike filesystem on unix - most cases, you erase it and file goes away, but not so with hardlinks, and .. and . are even weirder :) AP>> report ;-). OTOH, I think a lot of people will get bitten by this AP>> design implementation, so perhaps people will consider having a GLOBALy Well, people need to start understanding this if they try to get into such fields. -- Stanislav Malyshev stas@zend.com +972-3-6139665