Doc #62406 [NEW]: Omitted passing by reference technique

From: renwooller at gmail dot com Operating system: PHP version: Irrelevant Package: Documentation problem Bug Type: Documentation Problem Bug description:Omitted passing by reference technique Description: ------------ The page describing how to pass variables by reference (http://my.php.net/manual/en/language.references.whatdo.php) doesn't mention another technique of passing by reference which is to put the ampersand on the variable when the function is being called, rather than in the function definition. As a result, I'm not sure what the intended behaviour is eg: Could it cause a problem? Perhaps it's some side-effect of being able to declare arrays by reference that wasn't intended? Perhaps it is a handy tool? The documentation should mention it and clarify. Test script: --------------- <?php $a = 0; testRef($a); echo "no ref : $a \n"; $a = 0; testRef(&$a); echo "input ref : $a \n"; $a = 0; testRef($a); echo "function definition ref : $a \n"; $a = 0; testRef(&$a); echo "function definition and input ref : $a \n"; function testRef($a) { $a +=1; } function testRef2(&$a) { $a +=1; } ?> Expected result: ---------------- I don't know, that's the problem with the documentation. Maybe 'input ref' should actually be 0? Actual result: -------------- no ref : 0 input ref : 1 function definition ref : 0 function definition and input ref : 1 -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=62406&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.3): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=trysnapshot53 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=fixed Fixed in SVN and need be documented: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=needdocs Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=62406&r=mysqlcfg