   #PHP Manual Language Reference Comparing objects in PHP 5 What
   References Do

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Chapter 14. References Explained

   Table of Contents
   What References Are
   What References Do
   What References Are Not
   Passing by Reference
   Returning References
   Unsetting References
   Spotting References

What References Are

   References in PHP are a means to access the same variable content by
   different names. They are not like C pointers, they are symbol table
   aliases. Note that in PHP, variable name and variable content are
   different, so the same content can have different names. The most
   close analogy is with Unix filenames and files - variable names are
   directory entries, while variable contents is the file itself.
   References can be thought of as hardlinking in Unix filesystem.
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