How can beginners differentiate between pass by value and pass by reference in PHP functions?

In PHP, when a variable is passed by value to a function, a copy of the variable is created and any changes made within the function do not affect the original variable outside of the function. When a variable is passed by reference, any changes made to the variable within the function will also affect the original variable outside of the function. To pass a variable by reference in PHP, you can use the '&' symbol before the variable name in the function definition. This tells PHP to pass the variable by reference instead of by value. 

// Pass by value example
function passByValue($num) {
    $num = $num * 2;
    return $num;
}

$number = 5;
echo passByValue($number); // Output: 10
echo $number; // Output: 5

// Pass by reference example
function passByReference(&$num) {
    $num = $num * 2;
}

$number = 5;
passByReference($number);
echo $number; // Output: 10

Keywords

PHP pass by value pass by reference functions beginners

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