References & Objects -- Confusion?

[winterbeef]

Folks,
I've always thought the syntax for using references as kind of weird...

Anyway, given the following code:

<?php
class Node {
	var $data;
	var $next;

function getData(){
	return $this->data;
}

function setData($v){
	$this->data = $v;
}

function Node($d) {
	$this->setData($d);
}

function setChild(&$n) {
	$this->next = $n;
}

}

$node1 =& new Node('hello');
$node2 =& new Node('goodbye');

$node1->setChild($node2);
$node2->setData('adios');

echo $node2->getData().' ? '.$node1->next->getData();
?>

why does $node1->next->getData() == 'adios'? I think that somewhere along the way, I get a copy rather than a reference, but I honestly don't see it.

I have read the manual, on Objects, References, etc... and it all makes sense....until I write the above!

Help me, I'm losing sanity points....

[barand]

Your code gave me adios ? goodbye
Did a bit of experimenting and this gave what I expected
ie adios ? adios

function setChild(&$n) {
        $this->next = &$n;
    }

[winterbeef]

....

function setChild(&$n) {
        $this->next = &$n;
    }

Well I'll be damned! I thought that I had tried everything...

Thanks very much! Though I'll admit that I'm still puzzled. From the example in the manual of Passing By Reference it would seem to me that once you have the ampersand prefixing the formal parameter in the signature of the function, one then uses the parameter without the ampersand inside the function definition. e.g., directly from the manual:

function foo (&$var) 
{ 
   $var++; 
} 

$a=5; 
foo ($a); 
// $a is 6 here

I'll hesitantly resolve this issue, but wouldn't mind if someone could help me with this concept.

Thanks again, Barand!