Re: arrays and references

Stefan Goethals [stefan@yournet.be] wrote: > > Hi , > > pass an array by reference to your function > > function make_my_array( &$rows ){ > > //steps to fill $rows with data from database... > mysql_connect..... > .... > etc So even though the function takes in a reference to an array, inside the function you still refer to $rows as if it was an array and not a reference to an array? Maybe I'm getting confused because in Perl a "reference" to something is an actual scalar "thing" - it points to something. But in PHP, it sounds like a reference is not a tangible scalar "thing" - it is mearly a way to make 2 different things both point to the same thing. Am I right? So, for an example closer to what I'm trying to do, can I do this: function populate_rows( &$rows ) { $query = "SELECT id, name FROM test_table"; // connect already done - link in $db_conn if (! $result = mysql_query($query, $db_conn)) { // error - handle it here and exit } // This is the important part while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { array_push($rows, $row); // is this correct, or would // I want to push a "reference" // to $row onto array $rows? } } $rows = array(); populate_rows($rows); $row_ct = 0; while (list($key, $value) = each ($rows)) { $row_ct++; echo "Row $row_ct: ID=$rows[$row_ct][id], Name=$rows[$row_ct][name]<br>"; } > > } > > us it like this, > > // create an empty array > $rows = array() > > make_my_array( $rows ); > > // $rows now contains your data > > bye > > -- > > Stefan - Zipkid - Goethals > YourNet - Open source web design & Site management. > http://www.yournet.be > mailto:stefan@yournet.be > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net -- Hardy Merrill Mission Critical Linux, Inc. http://www.missioncriticallinux.com