Little help for php function

<?php
function a($n){
  b($n);
  return ($n * $n);
}

function b[COLOR="Red"](&$n)[/COLOR]{
  $n++;
}

echo a(5); //Outputs 36
?>

Code (markup):

What is the use of & in function b

 

it is passing by reference , which means the function can modify the value. check here for more details :

http://php.net/manual/en/language.references.pass.php

 

Your code is working similar to as if $n is "global" variable. You can also use:

function a($n){
$n=b($n);
return ($n * $n);
}

function b($n);
++$n;
return $n;
}

Code (markup):

Thanks