PHP Constant References

Question

I'm a intermediate C++ programmer and know that you can pass a constant reference as a parameter in order to prevent editing to the actual variable. I was wondering if I could do this in PHP?

Answer 1

No, there is no equivalent to C++'s const qualifier in PHP.

Answer 2

Is this what you're talking about:

<?php
    $a = 10;
    function foo($p_a) {
        // passing by value is the default
        $p_a++;
    }
    foo($a);
    echo $a; // prints 10

    $a = 10;
    function bar(&$p_a) {
        //-------^ passing by reference
        $p_a++;
    }
    bar($a);
    echo $a; // prints 11
?>