I do not understand what this code is doing in PHP

Question

I have this code,

// TEMP VAR
$temp = &$files;
// BUILD ARRAY STRUCTURE
while(count($file['path'])) {
    // GET DIRECTORY
    $directory = array_shift($file['path']);
    // DIRECTORY NOT SET
    if(!isset($temp[$directory])) {
        // SET DIRECTORY
        $temp[$directory] = array();
    }
    // GO INTO ARRAYS NEXT DIRECTORY
    $temp = &$temp[$directory];
}

I got it from the answer to this question,

String with array structure to Array

I know what it does, but not how it does it, could anyone please explain to me line by line what is happening?

Thank you all.

Which line, specifically, don't you understand? You have a descriptive comment on every single line... — Oliver Charlesworth, Jun 03 '12 at 12:31
-1 http://www.emilvikstrom.se/whyidownvote.html (What have you read? Are you new to the language? What is your goal?) — Emil Vikström, Jun 03 '12 at 12:33
@OliCharlesworth I do not understand what the `&` is doing on both occasions, I know it something to do with `reference` but I looked at the docs and still can't figure it out. — hadley, Jun 03 '12 at 12:37

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 05 '12 at 17:49

0

An ampersand in this use is a reference. See this article

$variable = 'Lorem ipsum';
$new = &$variable;
$variable = 'Some new data';
echo $new; //Prints "Some new data"

answered Jun 05 '12 at 17:49

Steve Robbins

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I do not understand what this code is doing in PHP

1 Answers1