Question

Example:

function create_pets(&$cats, &$dogs){
 $dogs = get_dogs();
 $cats = get_cats();
}

so I would call it like:

function foo(){
  create_pets($cats, $dogs);

  // here use $cats and $dogs variables normally
}

I know that I could just assign a new varible the return value of one of those getter functions, but this is just an example. In my situation there’s more than just a getter…

Answer 1

The answer as everyone says is “it depends”. In your specific example, a “create” function, the code is less obvious to work with and maintain, and thus it’s probably a good idea to avoid this pattern.

But here’s the good news, there’s a way of doing what you are trying to do that keeps things simple and compact while using no references:

function create_pets(){
    return array(get_dogs(), get_cats());
}


function foo(){
    list($dogs, $cats) = create_pets();
    //here use $cats and $dogs variables normally
}

As you can see you can simply return an array and use the list language construct to get the individual variables in a single line. It’s also easier to tell what’s going on here, create_pets() is obviously returning new $cats and $dogs; the previous method using references didn’t make this clear unless one inspected create_pets() directly.

You will not find a performance difference of using either method though, both will just work. But you’ll find that writing code that is easy to follow and work on eventually goes a long way.