PHP "&" operator
<p>I'm not a PHP programmer (but know other languages) and I'm trying to understand a web page that was done in PHP (5.1.6) in order to do some changes.</p>

<p>The page has the following code (simplified):</p>

<pre><code>$db_hosts = array();
$sql = 'SELECT h.hostid, h.host FROM hosts h ';

$db_items = DBselect($sql);

while($db_item = DBfetch($db_items)){
   $name = $db_item['host'];
   $db_host = &amp;$db_hosts[$db_item['hostid']];
}
</code></pre>

<p>What I'm trying to understand the last line <code>$db_host = &amp;$db_hosts[$db_item['hostid']];</code></p>

<p>It seems to be creating a new variable <code>$db_host</code> and putting something inside it, but don't understand <code>&amp;$db_hosts</code>.</p>

<p>I'm in doubt because as far as I know, <code>$db_hosts</code> is an empty array.</p>

<p>I found <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1367454/what-do-operators-in-php-mean">this</a> and <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/600202/understanding-phps-operator">this</a>, but I'm not quite sure, because in this links, the operator is "=&amp;", and in the code, the operator is attached to the variable "= &amp;$db_hosts" (it has an space between = and &amp;).</p>

<p>Since I tried to modify it and didn't got success, I thought that was better to ask for help...</p>

<p>TIA,</p>

<p>Bob</p>
