Posted by Michael Fesser on 10/28/07 21:39

..oO(duzhidian@gmail.com)

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

PHP is not C/C++. Don't compare C's references or pointers with
references in PHP.

If you really have a use for references, then use them. But in all other
cases just use what makes more sense in the application context. Usually
I prefer to have a function return its result, since this allows to
easily nest function calls. The code is more readable (at least for me).

Actually I think that in my own framework there's currently not a single
function that requires arguments passed by reference. Some functions use
references internally, for example for traversing through an array tree,
but in most if not all functions arguments are passed by value.

Micha

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