[PHP-BUG] Req #70278 [NEW]: Allow null to be passed by reference

From:             cyslider at posteo dot de
Operating system: 
PHP version:      Next Major Version
Package:          PHP Language Specification
Bug Type:         Feature/Change Request
Bug description:Allow null to be passed by reference

Description:
------------
Please allow null - and preferable also any other value - to be directly
passed into a function that expects a reference.

If I want to pass 'null' by reference I currently have to do it like
this:

function testFunc(Array &$array = null) {
// Do something
}

$null = null;
testFunc($null);

This is cumbersome.

Better would be to also allow:

testFunc(null);

I would suggest some automatical boxing in case a direct value is passed
instead of a referenceable variable. That way you could also pass
strings directly into a function that expects a reference merely for
performance reasons.

function exec (&$sql) {
     //Execute SQL
}

exec("Select 1");

Which currently throws an error.

Greetings,
       CySlider


-- 
Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=70278&edit=1
-- 
Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4):   https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=trysnapshot54
Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5):   https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=trysnapshot55
Try a snapshot (trunk):     https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=trysnapshottrunk
Fixed in SVN:               https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=fixed
Fixed in release:           https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=alreadyfixed
Need backtrace:             https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=needtrace
Need Reproduce Script:      https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=needscript
Try newer version:          https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=oldversion
Not developer issue:        https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=support
Expected behavior:          https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=notwrong
Not enough info:            https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=notenoughinfo
Submitted twice:            https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=submittedtwice
register_globals:           https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=globals
PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=php4
Daylight Savings:           https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=dst
IIS Stability:              https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=isapi
Install GNU Sed:            https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=gnused
Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=float
No Zend Extensions:         https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=nozend
MySQL Configuration Error:  https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=70278&r=mysqlcfg