Re: object references lose local variables

I tried to ask this person if anybody answered his question personally or not but it appears the e-mail address isn't real (a@a.com). Understanable. Does anyone know about this or did anyone send em an e-mail about this? Just starting work on my first serious OOP project beyond a handful of basic classes and am interested in any information or problems associated with it. Joel : I'd like to ask your help to figure out why PHP objects are stripped of : their local variables when you add the objects to an array. : Shouldn't these be references, not shallow copies? : : The code below is a simple org chart. : I create three instances, each is added to a global array called orgs[]. : : Each instance has a child, but when you add them to orgs[] : they lose their children. : I used & to create a reference, not a copy, but the problem remains. : : Please reply by email to steve@orangeimagineering-no-spam-please.com, : but without the "-no-spam-please". : : When run in PHP Version 4.0.6, I get this output. : Notice that $apple retains its local value of $children, : but the same object, pushed onto $orgs[0], loses its local value. : : --- output web page---- : : <Apple has 1 children > : <Banana has 1 children > : <Cherry has 1 children > : : <Apple has 0 children > : <Banana has 0 children > : <Cherry has 0 children > : : : ----------- source code ------ : <?php : // A simple (buggy) Org chart package : global $orgs; : $orgs = array(); : : class Org { : var $name; : var $children; : : function Org ($iname) { : global $orgs; : $this->name = $iname; : $this->children = array(); : $orgs[] = & $this; // Each Org is added to the array $orgs[] : } : : function prettyprint() { : return "&lt;".$this->name." has ".count($this->children)." : children &gt;"; : } : } // end class Org : : // Create three Orgs : $apple = new Org("Apple"); : $banana = new Org("Banana"); : $cherry = new Org("Cherry"); : : // Arrange them hierarchically : $apple->children[] = $banana; : $banana->children[] = $cherry; : $cherry->children[] = "none"; : ?> : : <html> : <body bgcolor=white> : <?php : : echo($apple->prettyprint()."<br>"); : echo($banana->prettyprint()."<br>"); : echo($cherry->prettyprint()."<p>"); : : echo($orgs[0]->prettyprint()."<br>"); : echo($orgs[1]->prettyprint()."<br>"); : echo($orgs[2]->prettyprint()."<br>"); : ?> : </body> : </html> : : : -- : 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