sending an array to a function

lighton · October 13, 2007

i came across this whilst browsing the php docs

function rnatsort ( &$array = array() )

{

what does the & do before the $array?

???

esukf · October 13, 2007

Pass the array to the function by reference. http://uk.php.net/language.references.pass

redarrow · October 13, 2007

little example


<html>
<body>
<?php

function hi(&$a)
  {
  echo $a . " redarrow.<br />";
  }
  
$b="My name is";

  
hi($b);

?>

</body>
</html>

Rithiur · October 13, 2007

Here's a better example of references. In the previous one, it doesn't really matter whether it's passed by reference or not.

<?php

$b = 'foo';

function makebar(&$arg)
{
    $arg = 'bar';
}

makebar($b);

echo $b; // will output 'bar'.

?>

lighton · October 16, 2007

thanks for the response

are you saying (in essence) it means you dont have to return any values from the function?

jscix · October 16, 2007

Oh that's cool, I didn't know php could do that... this is similar to 'out' in C# eh?

public Foo(out string bar) {

bar = "Bar";

}

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