Can i change the value of local variable sitting inside the function in PHP?
<p>I was reading an article about Data Encapsulation in PHP, and the author explained in such a way that it made me to wonder if this is really possible? here is what he said. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The primary purpose of encapsulation
  (scope) is to ensure that you write
  code that can't be broken. This
  applies to scope in general, so let me
  use a simpler example of a local
  variable inside a function:</p>
</blockquote>

<pre><code>function xyz ($x) {
  $y = 1;
  while ($y &lt;= 10) {
    $array[] = $y * $x;
    $y++;
  }
  return $array;
}
</code></pre>

<blockquote>
  <p>The purpose of this function is to
  pass a number and return an array. The
  example code is pretty basic. In order
  for function xyz() to be dependable,
  you need to be guaranteed that it does
  the exact same thing every time. So
  what if someone had the ability to
  from the outside change that initial
  value of $y or $array? Or even $x? If
  you were able to do that from outside
  of the function, you could no longer
  guarantee what that function is
  returning.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Now this made me wonder can i really change the value of local variable sitting inside the function without using any argument as demonstrated above ?? if it is possible how do i do it?</p>

<p>thank you..</p>
