array creation as reference, or always copied?

[mortoray@ecircle-ag.com]

Throughout the PHP manual, and normal code, one finds this construct:
$var = array( ... );

However, as far as I can tell this is quite inefficient, since it
always means two arrays are being created. The right-side array is
created, and then copied to the left-side variable.

Thus one would expect the normal syntax should be:
$var =& array( ... );

But this is not used in the manual very often.

So, is there some kind of magic on the first array assignment such that
it is done by reference (the first time)? Or are the vast majority of
examples of array creation in the manual (and most PHP code)
inefficient?

[Janwillem Borleffs]

Re: array creation as reference, or always copied?

mortoray@ecircl e-ag.com wrote:[color=blue]
> However, as far as I can tell this is quite inefficient, since it
> always means two arrays are being created. The right-side array is
> created, and then copied to the left-side variable.
>
> Thus one would expect the normal syntax should be:
> $var =& array( ... );
>
> But this is not used in the manual very often.
>[/color]

Using an array by reference would only be useful if you want to re-use it:

// Create new arrays
$array = array(1,2);
$array2 = array(3,4);

// Create a reference
if (somecondition) {
$array_ref =& $array;
} else {
$array_ref =& $array2;
}

// Do something with the array
print $array_ref[0];


JW

[Chung Leong]

Re: array creation as reference, or always copied?

<mortoray@ecirc le-ag.com> wrote in message
news:1108540356 .712929.201860@ o13g2000cwo.goo glegroups.com.. .[color=blue]
> Throughout the PHP manual, and normal code, one finds this construct:
> $var = array( ... );
>
> However, as far as I can tell this is quite inefficient, since it
> always means two arrays are being created. The right-side array is
> created, and then copied to the left-side variable.
>
> Thus one would expect the normal syntax should be:
> $var =& array( ... );
>
> But this is not used in the manual very often.
>
> So, is there some kind of magic on the first array assignment such that
> it is done by reference (the first time)? Or are the vast majority of
> examples of array creation in the manual (and most PHP code)
> inefficient?
>[/color]

array() is a declaration, not a function. That's why you can do things like

function Dingo($baby = array())

and

class Dingo {
var $baby = array();
}

[Wayne]

Re: array creation as reference, or always copied?

On 15 Feb 2005 23:52:36 -0800, mortoray@ecircl e-ag.com wrote:
[color=blue]
>So, is there some kind of magic on the first array assignment such that
>it is done by reference (the first time)? Or are the vast majority of
>examples of array creation in the manual (and most PHP code)
>inefficient?[/color]

As other people have pointed out Array() is not a function. But I
thought I should also add that PHP uses copy-on-write for all
operations meaning that there is no performance penalty for passing
arrays (and strings, I believe) around. Only when you modify an
array is a copy actually made. This is all done, of course, behind
the scenes.