note 53895 added to language.references.arent

References are not like pointers. If you try the example above in C/C++ you will find that after calling foo(var) you can get or set the value of $GLOBALS["baz"] by reading or writing variable 'var' (I didn't actually try it, but I vaguely remember it works this way). In PHP this is also true if you do: <?PHP $var =& $GLOBALS["baz"]; ?> but *IT IS NOT* if you use a function to do that, in spite of - using a reference as a parameter (function foo(&$var)) and - assigning it a reference to the variable you want to bind ($var =& $GLOBALS["baz"]) inside the function I tried this: <?PHP $GLOBALS["baz"] = 'globals_baz'; $bar = 'bar'; function foo (&$var) { $var =& $GLOBALS["baz"]; } // Before 'binding' $bar to $GLOBALS["baz"] using a function echo '$GLOBALS[baz]: ' . $GLOBALS["baz"] . "<BR>\n"; // Output is 'globals_baz' echo "\$bar: $bar <BR>\n"; // Output is 'bar' foo($bar); // After (what you may expected to be a) binding you should see that $bar is the same as $GLOBALS[baz]: echo "\$bar: $bar <BR>\n"; // it didn't work: output is still 'bar' (not 'globals_baz') // And setting $bar should set $GLOBALS[baz]: $bar = 'bar'; echo '$GLOBALS[baz]: ' . $GLOBALS["baz"] . "<BR>\n"; // it didn't work, too: output is still 'globals_baz' (not 'bar') ?> If you change the calling of foo($bar) with $bar =& $GLOBALS["baz"]; it all works as expected. So the assertion, "references are not like pointers," might be a bit confusing but it is fair. ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.references.arent.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+53895 Delete: added to the manual -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+53895&report=yes&reason=added+to+the+manual Delete: bad code -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+53895&report=yes&reason=bad+code Delete: spam -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+53895&report=yes&reason=spam Delete: useless -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+53895&report=yes&reason=useless Delete: non-english -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+53895&report=yes&reason=non-english Delete: other reasons -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+53895&report=yes Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+53895&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php