->, Objects and references, in Php

A PHP reference is an alias, which allows two different variables to write
to the same value. As of PHP5, an object variable doesn't contain the object
itself as value anymore. It only contains a object identifier which allows
object accessors to find the actual object. When an object is sent by
argument, returned or assigned to another variable, the different variables
are not aliases: they hold a copy of the identifier, which points to the same
object.

Example #1 References and Objects


<?php
class A {
    public $foo = 1;
}  

$a = new A;
$b = $a;     // $a and $b are copies of the same identifier
             // ($a) = ($b) = <id>
$b->foo = 2;
echo $a->foo."\n";


$c = new A;
$d = &$c;    // $c and $d are references
             // ($c,$d) = <id>

$d->foo = 2;
echo $c->foo."\n";


$e = new A;

function foo($obj) {
    // ($obj) = ($e) = <id>
    $obj->foo = 2;
}

foo($e);
echo $e->foo."\n";

?>



The above example will output:

2<br />2<br />2<br />