[RESOLVED] . Vs &

Hi,
What is diff. between . VS &?
Also how to use:

php_smtp.dll
php_pop3.dll

I've been a VB6 coder for a long time and I'm used to using & for concactenating stuff together. In fact less than an hour ago, in PHP, I had typed

Quote:

---

$binary = $binary & ' ' & $si;

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.

This didn't work like I thought it would. So I retyped it as

Quote:

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$binay = $binary.' '.$si;

---

I'm not sure I've ever used & anywhere in PHP.

Use the period (.) to concatenate

PHP Code:

---

$stringa = 'dclamp';
$stringb = 'likes pizza!';
$stringc = $stringa . ' ' . $stringb;

echo $stringc;
// Prints: "dclamp likes pizza!" 


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Those 2 dll files are used for POP3 and SMTP. You really dont need to mess with the dll files unless you are installing them.

EDITED:
ignorance.

The & symbol is the reference operator in C-based grammars. Before PHP 5 we needed to use it in order to get a reference to an object; in PHP 5 objects have reference semantics by default. Now it's mainly only used in function declarations:

PHP Code:

---

function passbyref(&$thing)
{
  # this will modify the variable, or the reference in the variable, passed in:
  $thing = newthing();
} 


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and enumeration:

PHP Code:

---

foreach ($array as &$val)
{
  # this will modify the element in the array:
  $val = newval();
} 


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It is also the binary bitwise AND operator:

Code:

---

$a = 1 & 0; // $a = 0

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Thanks to all. Resolved ;).