Iterating an array by reference

MarkR

I'm doing a lot of iterating arrays by reference - typically arrays of objects (Using PHP 4.3.8, but will consider PHP5 ultimately).

Now I discovered that foreach() does not iterate by reference, hence

  foreach ($objectlist as $obj) {
   $obj->MutatingMethod();
  }

Has no effect on the contents of $objectlist.

I've come up with the following two solutions, neither of which I like very much:

  foreach ($objectlist as $key => $junk) {
    $obj = & $objectlist[$key];
    $obj->MutatingMethod();
  }

  foreach (array_keys($objectlist) as $key) {
    $obj = & $objectlist[$key];
    $obj->MutatingMethod();
  }

I don't like either of them, they look messy to me.

Any better ideas?

Mark

Weedpacket

How about

foreach ($objectlist as &$obj) {
   $obj->MutatingMethod();
  }

MarkR

That's what I want to do (I tried it originally, and again just now), although I'm hampered by the fact that it isn't syntactically correct and thus doesn't work at all. You obviously didn't test it.

I just wondered if there was a way of doing it which actually worked and wasn't as messy as the two I originally suggested.

Mark

Weedpacket

I tried it myself before posting, and it worked.

class foo{
function foo(){}
var $blag='lo!';
function oink(){$this->blag='eeeee...';}
}
$array = array(new foo,new foo,new foo,new foo,new foo);
foreach($array as &$term)
{	$term->blag='hi!';
}
print_r($array);
foreach($array as &$term)
{	$term->oink();
}
print_r($array);

Guess it's new in PHP5.