What is the significance of using the / character before a variable in PHP code?

Using the / character before a variable in PHP code is used to indicate that the variable is a reference to the original variable, rather than a copy of its value. This is important when you want to pass a variable by reference to a function or when you want to modify the original variable within a function. 

// Example of passing a variable by reference to a function using the / character
$value = 10;

function doubleValue(&$num) {
    $num *= 2;
}

doubleValue($value);

echo $value; // Output will be 20

Keywords

slash variable PHP code significance syntax

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