On Wed, 9 Jun 2004, Stephan Schmidt wrote:
Yes, that is correct.
No, it is not. 'copying' a variable copies the structure to contain the variable, but not the data, but does NOT make a reference as that's a different concept.
You are right that the data associated with a variable container is only copied when it is modified.
Derick
Hm! I should 've known this - someone told this on a PHP Conference :).
I created a testcase where references to a string are a lot faster then normal copies by modifying the data after the assignment. But when I leave the data unaltered, I don't see a significant difference between a copy and a reference. So I assume that the cost of referencing is about equal to the cost of copying the structure..?
But as a rule of thumb: references to primary types (i.e. strings, arrays) are only faster when the data is modified, am I right?
Bert
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