This is actually a feature request. To be backward compatible, we would need to 
have a new interface, and obviously a new interface only to solve that reference 
thing is painful.

The immediate solution is to return an ArrayObject itself, which means that 
indirect modifications will work.

Arrays in PHP contains references to primitive types and reference types. Which basically means that if you are post-incrementing an element, well, it actually works.

Why is ArrayAccess::offsetGet() returns by value instead of by reference? Wasn't ArrayAccess created to emulate an array? This is a major inconsistency in the platform and makes this whole interface pretty useless. This isn't an engine limitation. __get(), __set(), __isset(), __unset() is returning values by reference without any problems. Why can't ArrayAccess (when it does pretty much the same thing?)

Can ArrayAccess::offsetGet() return by reference (or at the very least create a second interface, "ArrayAccessRef", for this)?

I'd like to see a solution to this problem as well. I have spent countless hours 
trying to use ArrayObject and ArrayAccess and they both have problems either 
with get and unset. An unset() on an ArrayObject issues the notice :

        $object["list"][0]["prods"] = "1,3";
        $object["list"][0]["cache"][1] = array(
                        'name' => 'p3',
                        'categories' => array(
                            array('category' => 'c3'), 
                            ),
                        'price' => 3
                        );
        unset($object["list"][0]["cache"][2]);

will issue Notice: Indirect modification of overloaded element... while this 
works with ArrayAccess! 

But something like a straight :
        $object['arr'][0]['foo'] = 'bar';
will issue the notice with ArrayAccess but not with an ArrayObject!

It's really silly.

I suggest that since this bug hasn't been fixed since 2005, it should be 
documented clearly that neither ArrayAccess and ArrayObject work correctly with 
multidimensional arrays and are just quick, funny but useless hacks so that 
people stop wasting their time with them.

Is this issue fixed in PHP 5.3.4 which supports defining &offsetGet ? (As documented in http://php.net/manual/en/arrayaccess.offsetget.php )

Actually Just tested and it's not..  Though ArrayAccess by itself works wonderfully.
--- Test script (Tested on PHP 5.3.5 x86_64 on Fedora 14)
<?php

class Test implements ArrayAccess {
        private $data = array();

        /** Array Access */
        public function offsetExists($offset)
        {
                return isset($this->data[$offset]);
        }

        public function &offsetGet($offset)
        {
                return $this->data[$offset];
        }

        public function offsetSet($offset, $value)
        {
                $this->data[$offset] = $value;
        }

        public function offsetUnset($offset)
        {
                unset($this->data[$offset]);
        }
}

class Test2 extends ArrayObject {
        public function &offsetGet($offset)
        {
                $t =& parent::offsetGet($offset);
                return $t;
        }
}

$t = new Test();
$t['test'] = array(1,2,3,4);
echo serialize($t)."\n";
$t['test'][] = 5;
echo serialize($t)."\n";

$t = new Test2();
$t['test'] = array(1,2,3,4);
echo serialize($t)."\n";
$t['test'][] = 5;
echo serialize($t)."\n";

Although no php dev has ever mentioned it in a bug report (that I can find), this issue has in fact been fixed.
At least, it has been fixed for ArrayAccess.
For ArrayObject, I haven't tested.

According to the PHP docs (http://php.net/manual/en/arrayaccess.offsetget.php notes section)
this was fixed in 5.3.4 by relaxing the requirements for implementing AccessAccess, so that
 public function &offsetGet($offset) {}
works, and thus indirect access works.

I've confirmed this does in fact work (on 5.3.8).

There are multiple bug reports all related to this topic:
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51622
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34783
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=32983

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