note 64410 added to language.oop5.basic

I read the first few comments about references versus assignment on objects, and I still couldn't get it. I'm going to talk about it in terms of practical usage, not the tomfoolery occuring behind the scenes. No talk of memory pointers and the like. <?php // prepend this to all examples class Mushroom { public $size; public function __construct($size) { $this->size = $size; } } $mushroom = new Mushroom(1); $assigned_shroom = $mushroom; $reference_shroom =& $mushroom; ?> Assignments and references, when it comes down to calling functions and modifying member variables, don't make ANY difference at all. <?php $mushroom->size = 5; // all shrooms are size 5 ?> The only deviation of behavior is when you assign totally new contents to a variable. Usually, this never happens unless you're doing some strange reflection or injection. <?php $mushroom = 5; // mushroom and reference_shroom are the integer 5, assigned_shroom is still a mushroom ?> <?php $reference_shroom = 5; // same effect as example above ?> <?php $assigned_shroom = 5; // only assigned_shroom is an integer ?> The same would apply for any object type. Once again, I reiterate, there's no need to overwrite variables and open this can of worms: just make a new variable and be done with it. As long as you don't overwrite variables, it doesn't matter whether or not you use references or assignments (unless you're planning for PHP4 compatibility). ---- Server IP: 64.71.164.2 Probable Submitter: 68.197.162.150 ---- X-Spam-Status: No, hits=3.1 required=5.0 tests=DATE_MISSING,FROM_NO_LOWER autolearn=no version=2.64 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.basic.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/note/edit/64410 Del: integrated -- http://master.php.net/note/delete/64410/integrated Del: useless -- http://master.php.net/note/delete/64410/useless Del: bad code -- http://master.php.net/note/delete/64410/bad+code Del: spam -- http://master.php.net/note/delete/64410/spam Del: non-english -- http://master.php.net/note/delete/64410/non-english Del: in docs -- http://master.php.net/note/delete/64410/in+docs Del: other reasons-- http://master.php.net/note/delete/64410 Reject -- http://master.php.net/note/reject/64410 Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php