concept of pointers

[Anon]

Hello

Will PHP support the concept of pointers just as in C.
Not variable variables concept.

[Anon]

They took them out in PHP4, you got pointers in PHP3

Andreas

[Anon]

I hate pointers. I didn't understand them in my C class. I didn't understand them in my C++ class. I hate pointers.

I thought I'd share.

---John Holmes...

[Anon]

If this is the case
How the concept of pointer handling(just as in C) is achieved in PHP4.

[Anon]

PHP has references and aliases AFAIK. A reference only really applies to functions.

$foo = "blah";
f(&$foo);
print $foo; // prints "unblah"

g($foo);
print $foo; // prints "notblah"

function f($bar) {
$bar = "unblah";
}

function g(&$bling) {
$bling = "notblah";
}

You can tell it to use a reference in the function or in the function call.

For aliases you're just creating two aliases that point to exactly the same thing. I think that all variables in PHP are pointers that are automatically followed. So an alias is like having two identical pointers.

$ding = "dong";
$mink =& $ding;
$mink = "monk";
print $ding; // print "monk";

unset($ding);
print $mink;
/ still works. unset removes the 'pointer' $ding but since the pointer $mink still exists the data that it points to isn't garbage collected. /

Somebody correct me on this if it isn't the case.

Ryan

[Anon]

Hi,

Is that possible with PHP3 ?

function a ( &$foo )
{
$foo["bar"] = "bob";
}

a( $foo[1] );

echo $foo[1]["bar"]; // Should give bob ?