Php reference symbol (&) Usage Details, php reference symbol (

Php reference symbol (&) Usage Details, php reference symbol (

The pointer in the C language is different from the pointer in the C language. The pointer in the C language stores the reference of the address variable whose content is stored in the memory.

PHP reference allows you to use two variables to point to the same content

$ A = "ABC"; $ B = & $ a; echo $ a; // output here: ABC echo $ B; // output here: ABC $ B = "EFG"; echo $ a; // here, the value of $ a is changed to EFG, so the EFG echo $ B is output. // EFG is output here.

Function address transfer call

I will not talk much about the address transfer call. The following code is provided directly.

<? Phpfunction test (& $ a) {$ a = $ a + 100 ;}$ B = 1; echo $ B; // output 1 test ($ B ); // here $ B is actually the memory address of the variable content of $ B, by changing the value of $ a in the function, you can change the value of $ B by echo "<br>"; echo $ B; // output 101?>

Note that test (1); will cause an error.

Function reference return

First look at the code

<? Phpfunction & test () {static $ B = 0; // declare a static variable $ B = $ B + 1; echo $ B; return $ B ;} $ a = test (); // This statement will output the value of $ B as 1 $ a = 5; $ a = test (); // This statement outputs the value of $ B as 2 $ a = & test (); // This statement outputs the value of $ B as 3 $ a = 5; $ a = test (); // This statement outputs the value of $ B as 6?>

The following explains:

In this way, $ a = test (); is not actually returned by the function reference, which is no different from the normal function call. The reason is: this is the php rule.
Php requires that $ a = & test (); is used to obtain the function reference and return.
As for what is reference return (in the PHP manual, reference return is used when you want to use a function to find the variable on which the reference should be bound .) I haven't understood this sentence for a long time.

The example above is as follows:

$ A = test () method to call a function. It only assigns the value of the function to $, $ a does not affect $ B in the function and calls the function in the $ a = & test () method, the function is to direct the memory address of the $ B Variable in return $ B to the same place as the memory address of the $ a variable, that is, the equivalent effect ($ a = & B;) is generated. Therefore, changing the value of $ a also changes the value of $ B.

$ A = & test ();
$ A = 5;

Later, the value of $ B is changed to 5.

Static variables are used to help you understand the reference and return functions. In fact, function reference and return are mostly used in objects.

Object Reference

 

<? Phpclass a {var $ abc = "ABC";} $ B = new a; $ c = $ B; echo $ B-> abc; // output ABCecho $ c-> abc here; // output ABC $ B-> abc = "DEF"; echo $ c-> abc; // output DEF here?>

The above code is the running effect in PHP5

In PHP5, object replication is implemented through reference. In the above column, $ B = new a; $ c = $ B; is equivalent to $ B = new a; $ c = & $ B;
In PHP5, the object is called by reference by default, but sometimes you may want to create a copy of the object and expect that the change of the original object will not affect the copy. for this purpose, PHP defines a special method called _ clone.

Role of reference

If the program is large, there are many variables that reference the same object, and you want to manually clear the object after it is used up, I suggest using the & method, then clear it in the form of $ var = null. in other cases, use the default php5 method. in addition, we recommend that you use the "&" Method for transferring large arrays in php5 to save memory space.

Cancel reference

When you unset a reference, you just disconnect the binding between the variable name and the variable content. This does not mean that the variable content is destroyed. For example:

$a = 1; $b =& $a; unset ($a);  

Not unset $ B, just $.

Global Reference

When a variable is declared with global $ var, a reference to the global variable is actually created. That is to say, it is the same as doing so:

$var =& $GLOBALS["var"]; 

This means that, for example, unset $ var does not unset global variables.

$ This

In the method of an object, $ this is always a reference to the object that calls it.

// Next is an episode

In php, the address pointing (similar to pointer) function is not implemented by the user, but is implemented by the Zend core. in php, the reference uses the principle of "Copy at write, unless a write operation occurs, the variables or objects pointing to the same address will not be copied.

In layman's terms

1: If the following code exists:

$a="ABC"; $b=$a; 

In fact, both $ a and $ B point to the same memory address, not $ a and $ B occupy different memory 2: If the following code is added on the basis of the above Code

$a="EFG"; 

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