#33352 [NEW]: returning references document says that class methods return reference is wrong

From: cmoore at iyd dot com Operating system: Gentoo Linux PHP version: Irrelevant PHP Bug Type: Documentation problem Bug description: returning references document says that class methods return reference is wrong Description: ------------ On the document page: http://us2.php.net/manual/en/language.references.return.php "& by function definition is optional in class methods." Reproduce code: --------------- <? class reftest { var $var = "original"; function by_copy() { return $this->var; } } print "By copy:\n"; $t = new reftest; var_dump($t); $c =& $t->by_copy(); $c = "copy"; var_dump($t); Expected result: ---------------- According to docs, $c should be a reference to the class variable. $t->c should have the value "copy" in the output from the last var_dump. When an ampersand is prefixed on the function by_copy(), it works as expected. Actual result: -------------- as demonstrated by the above code, a copy is returned. -- Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=33352&edit=1 -- Try a CVS snapshot (php4): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=trysnapshot4 Try a CVS snapshot (php5.0): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=trysnapshot50 Try a CVS snapshot (php5.1): http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=trysnapshot51 Fixed in CVS: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=fixedcvs Fixed in release: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=needscript Try newer version: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=oldversion Not developer issue: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=support Expected behavior: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=notwrong Not enough info: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=submittedtwice register_globals: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=globals PHP 3 support discontinued: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=php3 Daylight Savings: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=dst IIS Stability: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=gnused Floating point limitations: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=float No Zend Extensions: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=33352&r=mysqlcfg