Question

I’m curious to know why the following code behaves differently?

The following does not work:

$_variable &= global $_global;
echo $_variable;

The following works:

global $global;
$_variable &= $_global;
echo $_variable;

?

Answer 1

Think of the global keyword more like a verb than an adjective. Your first example says “reference assign the global known as $_global to $_variable”. But global is not an adjective. The second example, which is correct, says to php, “Treat $_global as a global”, or “global-ify $_global”, and then make the assignment.