URL to page I'm referring to:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.references.pass.php

Please see the function foo() as defined at the top of the page. At least two people have been confused by that example so it will probably make sense to tidy the page up a bit.

Ok, now I understand.

I would recommend just pasting function foo() as defined above in the example given further down the page.  Then the code block could be run as-is, readers could observe the error themselves, and there is no ambiguity:


<?php
function foo(&$var)
{
    $var++;
}

function bar() // Note the missing &
{
    $a = 5;
    return $a;
}
foo(bar()); // Produces fatal error since PHP 5.0.5

foo($a = 5); // Expression, not variable
foo(5); // Produces fatal error
?>

This bug has been fixed in the documentation's XML sources. Since the
online and downloadable versions of the documentation need some time
to get updated, we would like to ask you to be a bit patient.

Thank you for the report, and for helping us make our documentation better.

I have added the function foo() to the two snippets which did not have it. Thanks again for your input.