On 2 June 2017 18:21:34 BST, Levi Morrison <le...@php.net> wrote:
>On Fri, Jun 2, 2017 at 11:12 AM, Michael Morris <tendo...@gmail.com>
>wrote:
>> What about foreach by reference, which is honestly the only time I
>use
>> referencing anymore...
>>
>> foreach ($array as $key => &$value) {
>> $value = someOp($value);
>> }
>>
>> Is this also bad?
>
>I'm not going to say "bad" but I would not personally write it that
>way. If the memory cost is too high to duplicate then ...
The times I've used foreach-by-reference have absolutely nothing to do with
memory cost. Mostly, they're situations where explicitly writing back into the
original array would be tediously long-winded, like this:
$some_array[$some_outer_key][$loop_key]['foo'] = some_func($loop_value['foo']);
$some_array[$some_outer_key][$loop_key]['bar'] =
some_other_func($loop_value['bar'], true);
Granted, there are probably major refactorings that would be in some way
better, but changing $loop_value to a reference gives the much more readable:
$loop_value['foo'] = some_func($loop_value['foo']);
$loop_value['bar'] = some_other_func($loop_value['bar'], true);
References are fiddly, but they do have their uses. Short of eliminating
mutability, per functional programming, I think they'll always have their
place, in some form.
Regards,
--
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]
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