What is the purpose of the & Ampersand in front of PHP Variables?

Question: What is the purpose of the & Ampersand in front of PHP Variables? For example:  &$variable;

Answer:

What this does it creates a reference to the original variable and thus does not copy the value of the original variable.

$original_var = 500;

&$ref_var = $original_var;

//This will print the value 500
echo  $ref_var;

//Now we change the value of the original variable to 600
$original_var = 600;

//Now we print the value of the reference variable, and the reference variable takes the value of the original variable
echo  $ref_var;  //This will print 600

• You can also reference objects
• Referencing variables come in handy when trying to accomplish two task at once

NOTE: PHP 5 currently supports this

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