=& operator

[Michael Maher]

FileMaker keeps using this =& operator, which some research indicates is called a 'reference'.

But FM doesn't seem to explain when and when not to use it. Also my research tells me you can get into trouble using this in some circumstances, and others say it isn't necessary as the parser takes care of the optimisation issue.

My reading on it has done my head in.

Has anyone got opinions on correct usage, and does it really improve performance?

Michael

[Genx]

It used to be necessary with older versions of PHP i.e. 4. Referencing is now automatically taken care of for you with 5+... so no, it won't improve performance unless you are using an older version of php. You can replace all uses of =& in the examples with =.

Referencing basically refers to referring to an existing object instead of taking an entire copy of the object and placing it in a new variable.

[Michael Maher]

Yes thanks for that Genx, which is what a commentator I found on the web also said, except that others seem to disagree.

I expect the truth really lies in doing some testing, if I can be bothered. Although if this is true as you and others say, then I am surprised FMI has not updated their examples.

[Genx]

Clearly you never saw the speed with which fmi updated their inbuilt example files

You're going to have to learn that FMI have a habbit of doing things once and once only. Feel free to use =& it just won't make any difference.

Goto php.net for this info