Using arrays by reference in PHP

Question

Hi,

Why is the following code "crashing" in PHP?:

$normal_array       = array();
$array_of_arrayrefs = array( &$normal_array );

end( $array_of_arrayrefs )["one"] = 1; // choking on this one

The expected result is that the final code line appends $normal_array with key "one" having value 1. In the real context of this scenario I use end() function to always append to the last array reference.

This is PHP5 by the way.

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Thanks for your reply Konrad.

Then I bend the question slightly. How can I push array-references to an array and then using them from that array as references?

Regards

/R

Answer 1

This doesn't crash, it just contains a syntax error:

end( $array_of_arrayrefs )["one"] = 1;

Unfortunately, you cannot treat function return values as arrays in PHP. You have to assign the value explicitly. Unfortunately, this doesn't work here because end makes a copy of the returned value.

Answer 2

Created a new post instead:

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