note 105845 added to language.references.unset

Unsetting array and objects does NOT work when trying to unset them. You have to iterate through them in order to empty them out, akin to cleaning out memory in c/c++. Here are some examples: <?php echo "<pre>"; $a->something = true; echo "Running test(\$a)\n"; test($a); //At this point $a still has the something=true values var_dump($a); echo "\nRunning nuke_me(\$a)\n"; nuke_me($a); //At this point, the values in $a have been deleted. var_dump($a); echo "</pre>"; //Now, one would think that $a would be unset after running test(). But in this instance, $a is UNTOUCHED. //Call $a by reference, name it something else for giggles function test(&$trash) { unset($trash); } function nuke_me($var) { if (is_object($var) || is_array($var)) { foreach ($var AS $key => $value) { if (isset($key)) { if(is_object($var)) { unset($var->$key); } if(is_array($var)) { unset($var[$key]); } } } } else { unset($var); } } ?> ---- Server IP: 69.147.83.197 Probable Submitter: 67.251.5.232 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.references.unset.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/105845 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/105845/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/105845/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/105845/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/105845/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/105845/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/105845/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/105845 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/105845 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php