Req #70278 [NEW]: Allow null to be passed by reference

From: cyslider at posteo dot de Operating system: PHP version: Next Major Version Package: PHP Language Specification Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description:Allow null to be passed by reference Description: ------------ Please allow null - and preferable also any other value - to be directly passed into a function that expects a reference. If I want to pass 'null' by reference I currently have to do it like this: function testFunc(Array &$array = null) { // Do something } $null = null; testFunc($null); This is cumbersome. Better would be to also allow: testFunc(null); I would suggest some automatical boxing in case a direct value is passed instead of a referenceable variable. That way you could also pass strings directly into a function that expects a reference merely for performance reasons. function exec (&$sql) { //Execute SQL } exec("Select 1"); Which currently throws an error. Greetings, CySlider -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=70278&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=mysqlcfg