Comments on: It’s Not True that PHP Arrays are Copied by Value

By: php novice

php novice — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:45:09 +0000

Arrays are copied in PHP or?

$arr = array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);

$b = $arr;

print_r($arr);

echo "";

print_r($b);

echo "";

$b[0] = "A";

print_r($arr);

echo "";

print_r($b);

echo "";

$c =&$arr;

print_r($arr);

echo "";

print_r($c);

$c[0] = "A";

echo "";

$c =&$arr;

print_r($arr);

echo "";

print_r($c);

By: Luis

Luis — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:29:18 +0000

Thanks for this post. Very interesting. I’d never have guessed that arrays are only copied when one of the referencing variables is changed (if it was not explicitly declared to be a reference with =&, in which case the references would remain the same). Up to this moment, in case it happens, they will reference the same array no matter if I use = or =&

Even though in practice this is transparent to the user, it’s very good to know. Thanks for letting us know it!

By: roshan

roshan — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 01:31:02 +0000

Hi friend

thanks for sharing these.. why don’t you add some social network sharing widget for your blog