What's "&" in front of function names?

Asked Aug 01 '11 at 14:38

Active Aug 01 '11 at 14:41

Viewed 2,111 times

Possible Duplicates:
What does it mean to start a PHP function with an ampersand?
Reference - What does this symbol mean in PHP?
What does this signature mean(&) in PHP?

What's up with the & in front of function names? What does it do?

function &fname(){

}

edited May 23 '17 at 09:58

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asked Aug 01 '11 at 14:38

Natasha

1

Nothing useful. Never used it before... :D – daGrevis Aug 01 '11 at 14:40
9

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1676897/what-does-it-mean-to-start-a-php-function-with-an-ampersand – ksn Aug 01 '11 at 14:40
What version of PHP is this? According to the docs, a function name must start with a letter or underscore (see http://www.php.net/manual/en/functions.user-defined.php). – Thomas Owens Aug 01 '11 at 14:41
1

@ThomasOwens: See http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.references.return.php – Tomalak Aug 01 '11 at 14:43
@Tomalak I wonder why that isn't documented on the functions page. I suppose the inconsistencies are one of the reasons why I dislike using PHP. – Thomas Owens Aug 01 '11 at 14:45
I see no inconsistency. This is documented on the references page, because it is about references. – Lightness Races in Orbit Aug 01 '11 at 14:50

What's "&" in front of function names?

0 Answers0