php/mongodb: how does references work in php?

Kristina Chodorow, the maintainer of the mongoDB php extension, wrote up a nice article in her blog about this issue:

in my opinion it clarifies how things work in php, i still think that references in php are really awkward ...

When you have something like $ref = &$someVar. $ref now refers to the value at $someVar.

EDIT:

Example #1 MongoCollection::insert() _id exampleInserting an object will add an _id field to it, unless it is passed by reference.

<?php$a = array('x' => 1);$collection->insert($a);var_dump($a)$b = array('x' => 1);$ref = &$b;$collection->insert($ref);var_dump($ref);?>

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