What are the best practices for passing variables to PHP functions, especially when dealing with arrays or complex data structures?

When passing variables to PHP functions, especially when dealing with arrays or complex data structures, it is best practice to use parameters by reference to avoid unnecessary copying of data. This can improve performance and memory usage, especially when working with large datasets. To pass variables by reference in PHP, you can use the "&" symbol before the parameter name in the function definition. 

// Passing an array by reference to a function
function modifyArray(&$arr) {
    $arr[] = "new element";
}

$data = [1, 2, 3];
modifyArray($data);
print_r($data); // Output: [1, 2, 3, "new element"]

Keywords

PHP functions variables arrays complex data structures passing

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