Re:morse.nl

When you cloned an object in PHP 4 and changed one of the variables, this was only changed in the copy. You would have to explicitly tell PHP to make a reference by using the & sign.

In PHP 5 this was changed. When you do anything with an object it is always a reference. You can however change this by using the lesser known clone construct.

Take for example the following situation:

<?php
class Console
{
	public $hello;
}

$console = new Console();
$console->hello = 'world';

$clone = $console;
$clone->hello = 'clone';

echo '$console: ' . $console->hello;
echo '$clone: ' . $clone->hello;
?>

In PHP 4 this would output

$console: world
$clone: clone

However in PHP 5 this will output

$console: clone
$clone: clone

To create a real clone of the Console class you can use the clone construct like this:

<?php
$console = new Console();
$console->hello = 'world';

$clone = clone $console;
$clone->hello = 'clone';

When you see the output now, it’s actually what you’d expect it to be:

$console: world
$clone: clone