Re: serializing references, almost without modifications

w>> Is it possible to retrieve the information if a variable is a reference w>> with eg is_reference() from user land? and even better to retrieve to Theoretically, yes. Practically, you'll get lots of surprises. All variables declared "global" are "references", for example. w>> which variable(name) that reference points? To itself, surely. I say for $N'th time - references are like Unix files, they do *NOT* point to other variable, they point to variable contents. Saying $a = &$b means "make a point to the same contents as b does". w>> print_r() is able to display references thus it should be possible to w>> get that information somehow. well, print_r does not print exactly it's argument. That's a bit more complicated, as I see. w>> then one could serialize the information which references points to w>> which variable in an object separately and after unserializing an object No. There's no such thing as "reference points to variable", there is a thing that "reference is an operation which makes two variables point to the same content". -- Stanislav Malyshev stas@zend.com +972-3-6139665