note 54153 added to control-structures.foreach

The poster who submitted this loop style for iterating over variables by reference: <?php foreach( $object_list as $id => $the_object ) { $the_object = &$object_list[$id]; // Re-assign the variable to point to the real object // ... unset($the_object); // Break the link to the object so that foreach doesn't copy the next one on top of it. } ?> Using foreach() means you end up making a copy of the value, and then quickly reassign it to be a reference. This is a waste of the original copy operation. You may want to consider this, more meaningful and readable alternative: <?php reset($object_list); while (list($key) = each($object_list)) { $the_object = & $object_list[$key]; // Re-assign the variable to point to the real object // ... unset($the_object); // Break the link to the object so that foreach doesn't copy the next one on top of it. } ?> ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.foreach.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+54153 Delete: added to the manual -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54153&report=yes&reason=added+to+the+manual Delete: bad code -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54153&report=yes&reason=bad+code Delete: spam -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54153&report=yes&reason=spam Delete: useless -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54153&report=yes&reason=useless Delete: non-english -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54153&report=yes&reason=non-english Delete: other reasons -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+54153&report=yes Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+54153&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php