Description:
------------
It does not seem possible to reduce the following two statements into a single statement. 

<?
$in=array(1=>'a', 2=>'b', 3=>array('aa', 'bb'));
$in[3]['cc']=&$in[3]; 
?>

I would suspect that this is the same or similar issue that causes the following statement to fail:

<?
var_export($in); 
?>

Reproduce code:
---------------
<?
$in=array(1=>'a', 2=>'b', 3=>array('aa', 'bb'));
$in[3]['cc']=&$in[3]; 
var_export($in); 
?>

Expected result:
----------------
array(
 1 => 'a', 
 2 => 'b', 
 3 => array( 
  0 => 'aa', 
  1 => 'bb', 
  'cc' => &$this->3, 
  ) 
); 

/* Note: as I've said before, there doesn't seem to be a method to refer to an element within the array being created at assignment time, I've used object syntax instead */ 

Actual result:
--------------
array (
  1 => 'a',
  2 => 'b',
  3 =>
  array (
    0 => 'aa',
    1 => 'bb',
    'cc' =>
    array (
      0 => 'aa',
      1 => 'bb',
      'cc' =>
      array (
        0 => 'aa',
        1 => 'bb',
        'cc' =>
        array (

Fatal error: Nesting level too deep - recursive dependency? in /home/bens/delete on line 4