Posted by Richard Lynch on 02/11/05 19:30

Ben Edwards wrote:
> From the manual
>
> "For each key/value pair it will create a variable in the current symbol
> table".
>
> What exactly is a simble table?

Internally, PHP stores variables in an array.

That array is sometimes referred to as a "symbol table" because each
symbol (variable name) is listed in the table with its value.

var_dump($GLOBALS);

is pretty much "the symbol table" for all intents and purposes to a PHP
script.

Down in the guts of PHP source, it's probably just a tad bit more
complicated than that :-)

For starters, do a little research on "reference counting" if you want to
make your head spin a bit.

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