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Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 19:39:17 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] php5 method return reference error?
From: cm@leetspeak.org (Michael Walter)

Not sure I'm missing something, but I fail to see the problem: Doesn't 
PHP 5 use object references anyway? So function pla() { return new 
Foo(); } would return a reference anyway, instead of copying the object 
itself over?

So just removing & should fix the problem, as long as you're dealing 
with objects.

Cheers,
Michael

Walter A. Boring IV wrote:
> Howdy,
>   I'm playing with php5 (from cvs), and came accross a strange error
> that doesn't happen with php4.  Maybe someone can shed some light on
> this for me?
> 
> I get the error
> "Fatal error: Only variables or references can be returned by reference
> in /home/waboring/devel/html/test.php on line 11"
> 
> Here is the php code
> 
> <?php
> 
> class foo {
>     var $test = 0;
> }
> 
> class bar {
>     function &get() {
>         //both of these fail
>         //return new foo;
>         return $this->_buildOBJ();
>     }
> 
>     function &_buildOBJ() {
>         $obj = new foo();
>         $obj->test = 'worked';
>         return $obj;
>     }
> }
> 
> $bar = new bar;
> $foo = $bar->get();
> echo $foo->test;
> ?>
> 
> This doesn't happen in php4.  
> This seems to go away if I change the bar::get() method to
> 
> function &get() {
>   $obj =& $this->_buildOBJ();
>   return $obj;
> }
>    
> 
> This seems like a bug to me, since both cases the return value is a
> reference of an object?
> 
> Thanks Walt
>