What References Do

$bar =∓ new fooclass();
$foo =∓ find_var ($bar);

Note: Not using the ∓ operator causes a copy of the object to be made. If you use $this in the class it will operate on the current instance of the class. The assignment without ∓ will copy the instance (i.e. the object) and $this will operate on the copy, which is not always what is desired. Usually you want to have a single instance to work with, due to performance and memory consumption issues.

The second thing references do is to pass variables by-reference. This is done by making a local variable in a function and a variable in the calling scope reference to the same content. Example:

function foo (∓$var)
{
    $var++;
}

$a=5;
foo ($a);