Question

I have this code:

$a = array ('zero','one','two', 'three');

foreach ($a as &$v) {

}

foreach ($a as $v) {
  echo $v.PHP_EOL;
}

Can somebody explain why the output is:
zero one two two .

From zend certification study guide.

Answer 1

Because on the second loop, $v is still a reference to the last array item, so it’s overwritten each time.

You can see it like that:

$a = array ('zero','one','two', 'three');

foreach ($a as &$v) {

}

foreach ($a as $v) {
  echo $v.'-'.$a[3].PHP_EOL;
}

As you can see, the last array item takes the current loop value: ‘zero’, ‘one’, ‘two’, and then it’s just ‘two’… : )