Are references necessary when passing objects in PHP?

When passing objects in PHP, references are not necessary by default. By default, objects are passed by reference in PHP, meaning that any changes made to the object within a function will affect the original object outside of the function as well. If you want to pass an object by value instead of by reference, you can use the clone keyword to create a copy of the object. 

class MyClass {
    public $value;

    public function __construct($value) {
        $this->value = $value;
    }
}

function modifyObject(MyClass $obj) {
    $obj->value = "Modified value";
}

$obj = new MyClass("Original value");
modifyObject(clone $obj);

echo $obj->value; // Output: Original value

Keywords

references objects PHP passing necessary

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