Posted by Rik Wasmus on 10/28/07 19:04

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:25:38 +0100, duzhidian@gmail.com =

<duzhidian@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello:
>
> When I need a function to generate a string, I have two methods:
>
> 1.
> pass by reference:
>
> mystring =3D "";
> myfunction( mystring ); // prototype of myfunction( &anystring );
>
> OR 2.
> mystring =3D myfunction(); //which return a string
>
> According to experience of C/C++, the former one is better as of the
> efficient, how about PHP?

The PHP engine is usually smarter then you think, so efficiency wise the=
re =

will be very little difference (you can test this offcourse examining ti=
me =

& memory usage). From a logical standpoint though, it makes very little =
=

sense to create a _new_ string in an existing variable by reference. I'd=
=

say functions taking arguments by reference only make sense when they =

either alter data directly related to their 'previous' value, or store t=
he =

values in come other scope.
-- =

Rik Wasmus

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