Why is function call by reference in PHP deprecated?
pass-by-reference, php
Solution
This is all documented on the PHP Passing by Reference manual page. Specifically (added emphasis mine):
Note: There is no reference sign on a function call - only on function definitions. Function definitions alone are enough to correctly pass the argument by reference. As of PHP 5.3.0, you will get a warning saying that "call-time pass-by-reference" is deprecated when you use & in foo(&$a);. And as of PHP 5.4.0, call-time pass-by-reference was removed, so using it will raise a fatal error.
As such, it was deprecated (and will throw a warning) in PHP 5.3.x and will fail in PHP 5.4.
That said, it's a trivial fix. Simply update your fix_names function as follows:
function fix_names(&$n1, &$n2, &$n3)
{
$a1 = ucfirst(strtolower($n1));
$a2 = ucfirst(strtolower($n2));
$a3 = ucfirst(strtolower($n3));
}
Incidentally, the 5.3.x series is getting quite long in the tooth, so it would be wise to update to a more recent build (after carrying out the necessary testing) if at all possible.
Problem
I wrote the following code: ``` <?php $a1 = "WILLIAM"; $a2 = "henry"; $a3 = "gatES"; echo $a1." ".$a2." ".$a3. "<br />"; fix_names($a1, $a2, $a3); echo $a1." ".$a2." ".$a3; function fix_names(&$n1, &$n2, &$n3) { $a1 = ucfirst(strtolower(&$n1)); $a2 = ucfirst(strtolower(&$n2)); $a3 = ucfirst(strtolower(&$n3)); } ?> ``` I received this notice: Deprecated: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated I need an explanation why did I receive this notice? And why in PHP Version 5.3.13, this has been deprecated?