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Doc Bug #79367 Undocumented behavior: Pass-by-ref arguments do not have to be initialized
Submitted: 2020-03-11 13:17 UTC Modified: 2020-03-11 13:23 UTC
From: mwolffhh at gmail dot com Assigned: cmb (profile)
Status: Not a bug Package: Documentation problem
PHP Version: Irrelevant OS:
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
 [2020-03-11 13:17 UTC] mwolffhh at gmail dot com
Description:
------------
---
From manual page: https://php.net/language.references.pass
---

Usually, you must define a variable before it is used, otherwise PHP will produce a notice.

When an argument defined as pass-by-reference though, defining the variable before using it is no longer neccessary.

This is not mentioned in the pass-by-ref docs, nor in the function argument docs:
https://www.php.net/manual/en/functions.arguments.php#functions.arguments.by-reference


Test script:
---------------
function output($s) {
    echo $s;
}
output($a); // => PHP emits notice, "Undefined variable: a"
$a = "Test";
output($a); // => outputs "Test"

function outputByRef(&$s) {
    echo $s;
}
outputByRef($a); // => no output, no notice
$a = "Test";
outputByRef($a); // => outputs "Test"


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 [2020-03-11 13:23 UTC] cmb@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Not a bug -Assigned To: +Assigned To: cmb
 [2020-03-11 13:23 UTC] cmb@php.net
This is already documented in the section "Assign By
Reference"[1]:

| If you assign, pass, or return an undefined variable by
| reference, it will get created.

[1] <https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.references.whatdo.php#language.references.whatdo.assign>
 
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