array items and & address operator...

[shadedecho]

is there anyway to get a reference to an actual array item and assign that to another variable? like this:

$arr = array("a" => array("a_1" => 1, "a_2" => 2), "b" => "b_1");

$a = &{$arr["a"]};

notice that $arr["a"] is itself an array, so one would think that you could actually get an address reference to that (sub) array. However, every syntax I try to do gives me PHP errors. I have tried {} and () around the array item, still no go.

anyone know how to do this?

 

[sleipnir214]

This code:

<?php
$a = array('foo', 'bar');

$b = &$a[1];

$b = 'baz';

print '<pre>';
print_r ($a);

?>

returns:

Array
(
    [0] => foo
    [1] => baz
)

Is that what you're looking for?


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[shadedecho]

good grief! how incredibly simple. yes that is exactly what I was getting at.

I for some reason felt i needed to help the "binding order" of the operators so that the & knew to get the address of the whole

$a[1]

instead of just the $a that it was immediately adjacent to. I guess PHP already says that

[]

binds before &. cool, thanks!

btw, doesn't it seem strange that having the () or the {} around the

$a[1]

was causing errors?

 

[sleipnir214]

No. Both are legal to surround a statement.

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[shadedecho]

that's my point, sleipnir, try your above example, but do

&($a[1])

or

&{$a[1]}

instead of just

&$a[1]

and it produces an error about expecting a different data type, something like T_STRING or something like that.

wonder why this is?

 

[sleipnir214]

Probably because PHP isn't as orthogonal a language as something like c.

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