CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phparrays
vbarbarosh
vbarbarosh

Reputation: 3702

PHP: Return a reference to an array element

Is there a way in PHP to return a reference to an element in array?

function ref(&$array, &$ref) { $ref = $array[1]; }
$array = array(00, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99);
ref($array, $ref);
$ref = 'xxxxxxxxxx';
var_dump($ref);
var_dump($array);

I expect that $array will be changed as in the following code:

$array = array(00, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99);
$ref = &$array[1];
$ref = 'xxxxxxxxxx';
var_dump($ref);
var_dump($array);

Upvotes: 10

Views: 14300

Answers (1)

vbarbarosh
vbarbarosh

Reputation: 3702

I've found two ways to return reference to an array element:

1. Using return by reference and =&

    function & ref(&$array)
    {
            return $array[1];
    }

    $array = array(00, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99);
    $ref =& ref($array);
    $ref = 'xxxxxxxxx';
    var_dump($ref);
    var_dump($array);

2. Put reference into an array

    function ref(&$array, &$ref = array())
    {
            $ref = array();
            $ref[] = &$array[1];
    }

    $array = array(00, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99);
    ref($array, $ref);
    $ref[0] = 'xxxxxxxxx';
    var_dump($ref);
    var_dump($array);

Upvotes: 27

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