How to avoid call-time pass-by-reference deprecated error in PHP?

Question

I'm trying to reduce the warnings that are sent to my apache server log. One warning is: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated. It is hard for me to imagine why this was deprecated since it is such a useful programming feature, basically I do this: ``` public function takeScriptsWithMarker(&$lines, $marker) { ... } ``` and I call this function repeatedly getting results back from it and processing them but also letting the array $lines build up by being sent into this method repeatedly. - To reprogram this would be extensive. - I don't want to just "turn off warnings" since I want to see other warnings. So, as call-by-reference is deprecated, what is the "accepted way" to attain the functionality of this pattern: namely of sending an array of strings into a method, have them be changed by the method, then continuing to use that array?

Accepted Answer

Actually, there's no problem with the way you define the function. Is a problem with the way you call the function. So for your example, instead of calling it like:

```
takeScriptsWithMarker(&$lines, $marker);
```

You'd call it like:

```
takeScriptsWithMarker($lines, $marker); // no ampersands :)
```

So the feature is still available. But I don't know the reason behind this change.

How to avoid call-time pass-by-reference deprecated error in PHP?

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