URGENT: References

Hello ! I got a problem with references (I think). I want to make a tree-like-structure with a class MenuItem. The childs of one item are stored into the array MenuItem::childs. The problem: When returning a child-MenuItem, it's not the same object I inputted before. I think, this is because PHO is making a copy of the object when returning it. In the following sample, "something went wrong" is printed, but I want to be $foundItem the same as $firstChild . I tried to return the child by reference (something like "return &$this->childs[0];"), but I only got parse-errors. Any help ? Regards Martin $root = new MenuItem(0); $firstChild = new MenuItem($root); $foundItem = $root->FindChild(); if ($foundItem == $firstChild) print "It works !!"; else print "The objects are the same, but something went wrong"; class MenuItem { var $parent; // Parent of the item var $childs = array(); // All Child-Items // Konstruktor function MenuItem($parent) { $this->parent = $parent; if ($parent != 0) { $parent->AddChild($this); } } // Fügt ein Kind hinzu function AddChild($childItem) { array_push($this->childs, &$childItem); } function FindChild() { return $this->childs[0]; // for Testing only } }