PHP pointers vs references

Question

In PHP, what is the difference between using a pointer such as:

function foo( $var )
{
    $var = 3;
}

$a = 0;
foo( &$a );

And reference:

function foo( &$var )
{
    $var = 3;
}

$a = 0;
foo( $a );

They both modify the value of the original variable, but are they represented differently internally?

Answer 1

In PHP, there are no pointers, only references. Your examples demonstrate pass by reference

The difference between your code snippets is only in syntax, where the first syntax is now deprecated.