Question

In PHP you can do this:

function something() {
  foreach (func_get_args() as $arg)
    echo $arg;
}
something(1, 3); //echoes "13"

This works fine for arguments passed by value, but what if I want them to be passed by reference? like this:

function something_else() {
  foreach (func_get_args() as $arg)
    $arg *= 2;
}
$a = 1;
$b = 3;
something_else($a, $b);
echo $a . $b; //should echo "26", but returns "13" when I try it

Is this possible in PHP?

Answer 1

The question seems horrible, but lets humour you. Below is a horrible hack, but you could send across a single argument which contains the items that you want to work with.

function something_else($args) {
    foreach ($args as &$arg) {
        $arg *= 2;
    }
}
$a = 1;
$b = 3;
something_else(array(&$a, &$b));
echo $a . $b; // 26