Posted by ZeldorBlat on 11/06/07 20:06

On Nov 6, 2:27 pm, Csaba Gabor <dans...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In the following PHP code, the final printed line shows 'frob:
> something'. Why is it not 'frob: else'? After all, if I replace the
> first line with $frob = "something"; test ($frob); then the final
> printed line does show 'frob: else'
>
> Csaba Gabor from Vienna
> PHP 5.2.4 on WinXP Pro
>
> test ($frob = "something");
> print "frob: $frob <br>\n";
>
> function test(&$val) {
> print "val pre: $val <br>\n";
> $val = "else";
> print "val post: $val <br>\n"; }

It's because you're not really passing a variable -- you're passing
the result of an expression. If you enable E_STRICT you'll get the
following:

Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference

Since you haven't passed a variable, modifying the value inside the
function is only modifying the local value.

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