Re: Question about internal workings of references/variables.

On Wed, 2004-03-10 at 10:30, Derick Rethans wrote: > On Wed, 10 Mar 2004, Robert Cummings wrote: > > > Hi Internals, > > > > I'd like to confirm/refute some knowledge I think I have of the PHP > > internal workings with respect to variables and references. I believe > > that when a variable is assigned the value of another variable an > > internal reference is created and some bit is used to keep track of > > whether the value should be copied when an attempt is made to change > > either the original variable or the newly assigned variable (maybe this > > isn't the case for integers or floats since the performance would be > > similar). Can anyone confirm or elaborate further? > > yes, that is true and called "copy-on-write". It's done for all types of > variables though. > > > Also I think I remember hearing once upon a time that creating a > > reference in PHP script is more work than creating a copy when the copy > > won't be altered? Can this be confirmed also? > > Never tried that myself, but I believe it to be true. > > > > Last but not least, do objects work under the same principles? > > yes, in php 4 they do. in php 5 it is true for "object-handles" and not > objects, but that shouldn't be of any concern. Thanks Derick, now I'll be sure to not misinform others :) Cheers, Rob -- .------------------------------------------------------------. | InterJinn Application Framework - http://www.interjinn.com | :------------------------------------------------------------: | An application and templating framework for PHP. Boasting | | a powerful, scalable system for accessing system services | | such as forms, properties, sessions, and caches. InterJinn | | also provides an extremely flexible architecture for | | creating re-usable components quickly and easily. | `------------------------------------------------------------'