Posted by Richard Lynch on 03/30/05 06:18

Aha!

Okay, here's the previous session question boiled down to its simplest:

<?php
session_start();
if (!isset($_SESSION['name'])){
$_SESSION['name'] = 'Richard Lynch';
}
else{
$name = $_SESSION['name'];
}
/* Assume a ton of code goes here */
$name = 'Fooey';
echo "Session name is: ", $_SESSION['name'], "<br />\n";
?>

Now, hit this page, re-load it, and what do *YOU* expect $_SESSION['name']
to output?

A) 'Richard Lynch', because you never re-assigned $_SESSION['name']
B) 'Fooey' because $name is a reference, and you changed it, so that
changed your session data.

*I* expected A)
Alas, the reality is B)

Grrrrrrrr. I do *NOT* want all my strings to suddenly turn into pointers.
If I wanted that kind of headache, I'd be coding in C! :-)

I should have known this from the get-go, when I saw & in my session data
with var_dump($_SESSION); *WHY* are strings suddenly turning into
references? They're *NOT* objects!

I'm about to go re-read the PHP 5 sections of the manual with a fine-tooth
comb to see if I just missed this as an upgrade issue.

It's pretty much going to break a hell of a lot of scripts, that's for sure.

Somebody please tell me this is a Bug, not a "Feature"

PHP 5.0.3
FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE

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