"&" before var is causing trouble

[VisionsOfCody]

Hi
If found a handy bit of code in your code library to search through the pages of a site.

When i tried it out I got the message
"Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated" whcih seems to have been generated by the presence of a "&" character in function call :

scroll ($new_dir, $terms, &$total);

from what i can understand it's used to increment the value of $total - but I started php with version 4 so I've never used this method

how would I go about replacing the "&" ?

here's the chunk of code

$tcount = 0; // initialize our file count



function scroll($current, $terms, $total) 
	{

$handle=opendir($current);		// open the directory passed as the first argument	
while (($file = readdir($handle))!=false) // keep cycling through all the files
		{$first = ""; // initialize first occurance of the match
		$fcount = 0; // initialize number of matches per file
		$found = false;	// initialize flag - true or false		
		$file_p = $current . "/" . $file;	// create the path to the file for the a href		
		if (($file != ".")  && ($file != "..")) // ignore . and .. files

			{
			if (is_file($file_p) && ((substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "3") || (substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "l") || (substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "m") ||(substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "p") ||(substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "t"))) // limit our search to
			// php3, php, html, htm and txt files

				{


				$file_b = fopen($file_p, "r"); // open the file for reading

				while (!feof($file_b)) // continue to end of line
					{$line = fgetss($file_b, 2000); // try and remove all data between <> when reading
					$line = trim($line); // trim any leading or trailing white space



					if (!empty($line))
						{

						if (eregi($terms, $line, $regs)) // check that line for a match, using the keywords, the line, and returning an array of the matches

							{$found = true; // set flag
							$fcount++; //increment total found for this file

							if ($first == "")
								{$first = $line; // set the variable to display the first line where the match occurred
								}
							}	

						}


					}					

					if ($found == true)
						{$len = strlen($file_p); // this allows us to print the link, ignoring the starting /
						$total++; // increment total number of file matches
						print ("<p><a href ='" . $file_p . "'>" . substr($file_p, 2, $len-2) . "</a> contains ". $fcount . " match(es).");
						print ("<br>First line matched: <i>" . $first . "</i>"); // display the first line in which the match was found
						}

				}

			if (is_dir($file_p)) // if the file is a directory


				{

				$new_dir = $current . "/" . $file;
				scroll ($new_dir, $terms,  &$total); // call the function recursively when it is a directory
				}

			// end of if (($file != ".")  && ($file != ".."))			
			}

		// end of while (($file = readdir($handle))!=false)
		}

closedir($handle); // close the directory

// end of function
 }

 scroll(".", $key, &$tcount); // initial call to the function, passing it the current directory as the start, the cleaned up search terms and the total number of files found - this is passed by reference so it can be incremeneted script-level


if ($tcount > 0)
{print ("<p>We found " . $tcount . " total match(es). Care to <a href = \"search.html\">search again?</a>");}
else
{print ("<p>We found failed to find a match, please <a href = \"search.html\">search again.</a>");}

} // end of keywords not empty
?>

any ideas ?

or is there another recursive search snippet on phpBuilder?

thanks

[onedrum]

The &$varname syntax is to pass the "varname" by reference, not by value.

The difference is that when $varname is modified in the function the changed contents will be visible outside the function, without having to specifically return it.

As to how to rewrite the function to not require pass by reference, you might have a job on your hands.

Would

global $total;
$total++;

be visible outside the function?

[VisionsOfCody]

well,
I thought "it can't be as simple as that"
but it was!

though there were some other problems like a vital variable ($key) being commented out at the top of the script and also I had to put in the $_POST on the form variables

but hey it works

thanks

updated:

<?
/* this script must reside in your root directory and will search recursively down through your web site

this script is written to work with php3 - if you are running php4, simply remove the 3 from the file name reference
 make the same modification in the form tag on our search page*/

$key = escapeshellcmd ($_POST['keywords']); // let's make sure any metacharacters get escaped so as not to wreak havoc with our host


global $total;
$total = 0; // initialize our file count

function scroll($current, $terms, $total) 
	{

$handle=opendir($current);		// open the directory passed as the first argument	
while (($file = readdir($handle))!=false) // keep cycling through all the files
		{$first = ""; // initialize first occurance of the match
		$fcount = 0; // initialize number of matches per file
		$found = false;	// initialize flag - true or false		
		$file_p = $current . "/" . $file;	// create the path to the file for the a href		
		if (($file != ".")  && ($file != "..")) // ignore . and .. files

			{
			if (is_file($file_p) && ((substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "3") || (substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "l") || (substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "m") ||(substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "p") ||(substr(strrev($file),0,1) == "t"))) // limit our search to
			// php3, php, html, htm and txt files

				{


				$file_b = fopen($file_p, "r"); // open the file for reading

				while (!feof($file_b)) // continue to end of line
					{$line = fgetss($file_b, 2000); // try and remove all data between <> when reading
					$line = trim($line); // trim any leading or trailing white space



					if (!empty($line))
						{

						if (eregi($terms, $line, $regs)) // check that line for a match, using the keywords, the line, and returning an array of the matches

							{$found = true; // set flag
							$fcount++; //increment total found for this file

							if ($first == "")
								{$first = $line; // set the variable to display the first line where the match occurred
								}
							}	

						}


					}					

					if ($found == true)
						{$len = strlen($file_p); // this allows us to print the link, ignoring the starting /
						$total++; // increment total number of file matches
						print ("<p><a href ='" . $file_p . "'>" . substr($file_p, 2, $len-2) . "</a> contains ". $fcount . " match(es).");
						print ("<br>First line matched: <i>" . $first . "</i>"); // display the first line in which the match was found
						}

				}

			if (is_dir($file_p)) // if the file is a directory


				{

				$new_dir = $current . "/" . $file;
				$total++;
				scroll ($new_dir, $terms,  $total); // call the function recursively when it is a directory
				}

			// end of if (($file != ".")  && ($file != ".."))			
			}

		// end of while (($file = readdir($handle))!=false)
		}

closedir($handle); // close the directory

// end of function
 }

scroll(".", $key, $total); // initial call to the function, passing it the current directory as the start, the cleaned up search terms and the total number of files found - this is passed by reference so it can be incremeneted script-level


if ($total > 0)
{print ("<p>We found " . $total . " total match(es). Care to <a href = \"search.html\">search again?</a>");}
else
{print ("<p>We found failed to find a match, please <a href = \"search.html\">search again.</a>");}

} // end of keywords not empty
?>