Is pass by reference supported in php 7? - syntax-error

Question

Recently we migrated PHP 5.6 to PHP 7
and now following code throws $this->a =& new test($this->f);
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'new' (T_NEW)
any ideas? what are the alternation that I could use for it?

Answer 1

As per the PHP7 incompatible changes: http://php.net/manual/en/migration70.incompatible.php
New objects cannot be assigned by reference
The result of the new statement can no longer be assigned to a
variable by reference: <?php class C {} $c =& new C; ?>
Output of the above example in PHP 5:
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is
deprecated in /tmp/test.php on line 3
Output of the above example in PHP 7:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'new' (T_NEW) in /tmp/test.php
on line 3
There is no alternative. You were using deprecated behavior, and now it's no longer valid PHP. Simply don't assign by reference.

Answer 2

To clarify Marc B's answer: just remove the ampersand like this
$this->a = new test($this->f);

Answer 3

You can do this as alternative:
$test = new test($this->f);
$this->a = $test;
now the $test is passed by reference and if you change attributes of $this->a, $test attributes will also change. and conversely.
PHP 7 is "pass by reference" by default. if you don't want to pass an object by it's reference, you should do this:
$a = clone $b;