title: Practical uses of prepending an ampersand to PHP variables
body: <p>I know that prepending a '&amp;' to your PHP variable sets up a reference to the original variable instead of copying its value like so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$original = 'apples';
  $secondary = &amp;$original;
  $original = 'oranges';
  
  echo $secondary; // 'oranges'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If it works this way, why not just use the original variable then?</p>