I first drafted this article while studying for my PHP certification in an effort to better understand how PHP manages variables and objects in memory. After a lot of research, I realized that it was not easy to find answers to my questions, so once I had finished, I decided to document the information so that people can find it all in one place.
In this article, I will talk about how object and variable references are controlled in memory, since this is an issue that can generate discussion and differing opinions. One question to ponder is: “By default, are objects passed by reference or by copy in PHP?” I’m going to talk first about what references are not in PHP; secondly, I’ll discuss what they are, and finally, I will examine how the garbage collector works in PHP.
How does PHP create objects in memory when performing a statement like $a = new Foo();? Nowadays, memory is not as expensive and limited a resource as it was in the past. However, it is still important for good PHP developers to know and understand how variables and objects are managed internally during the execution of their application.
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