Pointers and assignment (like in JavaScript)

karlovac

When working with objects in Javascript, I can assign a pointer to a particular object like so:-

myPointer = window.myForm.elements[0];

And then refer to that object using the pointer:

theValue = myPointer.value;

Is there some way to get this kind of behavior with objects in PHP? When I do this:-

$someObj = new MyClass();
$someObj->children[0] = new myClass();
// all OK so far...
// here's where I want to point, rather than assign:-
$myPointer = $someObj->children[0];
$myPointer->children[0]  = new MyClass();

Now if I do stuff to $myPointer, it doesn't affect the original object. I understand that this is what is to be expected, but is there there a way around this?

Thanks,

Antun

Code_guy

to assign by reference use:
$myPointer = &$someObj->children[0];

this creates a 'pointer' rather than a copy

antun

Thanks!

How would I make this work with method calls?

class Page {
    // sub-pages are all objects of the Page class.
    var children = array();
    function getLastPage() {
        return $this->children[ count( $this->children )-1 ];
    }
}

In this case, I want getLastPage() to return a pointer to the last item in the children array.

Antun

Code_guy


class Page {
    // sub-pages are all objects of the Page class.
    var children = array();
    function &getLastPage() {
        $pointer = $this->children[ count( $this->children )-1 ];
    }
}

$myPointer =& $myPage->getLastPage();

You have to use the & in both the function declaration and the assigment operator.

antun

Perfect!!

Thanks,

Antun