I’m confused about the concept of variable in PHP.
As far as I know, a variable in PHP has a name ($p) and a value ('Carlo').
$p has an associated entry in symbol table, such an entry actually points to the memory area where the variable’s value is stored (i.e. the string 'Carlo').
Consider the following:
$n =& $p
$n basically is an alias of $p therefore it points to the memory area where $p points to.
From an “under the hood” viewpoint, does the PHP interpreter create a new entry in symbol table for $nor since it is an alias doesn’t have its own symbol table’s entry ?
Btw, suppose to define class Alpha with its properties and methods. Then does $c = new Alpha actually return a “reference” into the $c variable, in other words is $c value a reference in memory to an instance of class Alpha ?