What is the difference between unsetting a reference variable and unsetting a specific array element in PHP?

Unsetting a reference variable in PHP removes the reference to the original variable, but does not affect the original variable itself. On the other hand, unsetting a specific array element in PHP removes that element from the array entirely. 

// Unsetting a reference variable
$originalVariable = "Hello";
$referenceVariable = &$originalVariable;
unset($referenceVariable);

echo $originalVariable; // Output: Hello

// Unsetting a specific array element
$array = [1, 2, 3, 4];
unset($array[1]);

print_r($array); // Output: Array([0] => 1 [2] => 3 [3] => 4)

Keywords

unset reference variable array element PHP difference

Related Questions