Are there any specific pitfalls to be aware of when using references in PHP?

One common pitfall when using references in PHP is accidentally modifying the original variable when working with references. To avoid this, always be mindful of which variables are references and keep track of their values. Additionally, be cautious when passing references as function arguments to ensure they are not inadvertently modified. 

// Example of using references in PHP
$original = 5;
$reference = &$original; // $reference now refers to $original

$reference = 10; // $original is also changed to 10

echo $original; // Output: 10

// To avoid accidentally modifying the original variable, make a copy instead
$original = 5;
$copy = $original;

$copy = 10; // $original remains unchanged

echo $original; // Output: 5

Keywords

references PHP memory management pass by reference variable scope

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