Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

Please read the red warning on the foreach docs page.

grmnpl - the explanation is that $a is still a variable which is a reference to the original array. Writing values into it, will write that value into the original array.


Re-using the names of variables is usually a bad idea - particularly when using them with references.

The behaviour you probably expected can be achieved by explicitly unsetting the $a variable:


<?php

$arr = [
	[1, 2],
	[3, 4]
];

foreach($arr as $i => &$a)
{
	if($i === 0)
	{
		$a[0] = 6;
		$a[1] = 7;
	}
}

//correct result
print_r($arr);

foreach($arr as &$a)
	print_r($a); //correct result

unset($a);

foreach($arr as $a)
	print_r($a); //bug - displays same values twice

?>



This example shows that writing any variable into $a will alter the original array.

<?php

$arr = [
	[1, 2],
	[3, 4]
];

foreach($arr as $i => &$a) {
	if($i === 0) {
		$a[0] = 6;
		$a[1] = 7;
	}
}

$a = "Wooo, magic";

foreach($arr as $b) {
    print_r($b); 
}

?>