References are not pointer in PHP5 !

function foo(&$var)

{

$var = 2;

}

$i = 1;

foo($i);

print $i; //prints "2"

but :

function foo(&$var)

{

$i = 2;

$var = &$i;

print $var; //prints "2"

}

$i=1;

foo($i);

print $i; //prints "1" !!!

Returning reference from functions:

function &foo(&$var)

{

$i = 2;

$var = &$i;

return $var;

}

$i=1;

print foo($i); // prints "2"