$this->result=& $result

[ethereal1m]

Dear all,

I'm reading a tutorial about iterator design pattern on the web but I got stumbled by the following snippet:

class MySQLResultIterator {
    var $result;
    function MySQLResultIterator (& $result) {
        $this->result=& $result;
    }
    function fetch() {
        return mysql_fetch_array($this->result);
    }
    function size() {
        return mysql_num_rows($this->result);
    }
    function reset() {
        return mysql_data_seek($this->result,0);
    }
}

MySQLResultIterator function passes its argument by reference but I don't understand its body part:

$this->result=& $result;

What does it do?

 

Best regards,

ethereal1m

[cags]

I've never work with ByRef values in PHP, but I would assume it makes the local variable $result a reference to $result the variable passed in.

[jamesm6162]

Yes

$this->result

is the access for the class member variable $result (not local).

 

This statement makes this member variable an alias or reference to the content that the parameter ($result) refers to.

Therefore, inside the method, both $this->result and $result (the parameter) points to the same thing.

After the method exits the member variable $this->result will still point to the same location of whatever variable was passed in as a parameter to the method call.

 

[ethereal1m]

great! thanks