Referencing in PHP

Question

Okay another referencing Question, not exactly sure how to google this one so I'll ask it here:

$TempArray = array_merge(  array("FILLER"), 
                           &$this->Variable1, 
                           &$this->Variable2, 
                           &$this->Variable3);

(variable1-3 are classes)

would editing the classes stored in that array, edit the referenced classes? Or is this not possible.

Answer 1

It is not possible in this case.

Reference & should and may be specified only in function declaration , not when you call the function.

Answer 2

array_merge creates a new array from the input values, so no, modification of $tempArray will not modify any of the arrays which were used to create it.

You should also be getting a warning if you try to use & when calling a method.

On the other hand, in this case:

$tmpArr = array();
$b = 0;
$tmpArr[0] = &$b;
$arr2 = array_merge( $tmpArr, array( 'a','b','c' ));
$arr2[ 0 ]++;
echo $b; // 1

Because you are storing the reference inside and array, when the reference is added to the result of array_merge, it is still a reference, so it still works.