What do "and" means infront of a variable? [closed]

In this example you are simply creating an array array(&$this, 'adminInit') where array[0] now references whatever $this is, and array[1] = 'adminInit'.

I believe in this case $this references the class you’re in ( denoted by &$this ) and then adminInit is likely a function (method) within that class.
Therefore when the admin_init happens it knows to access the adminInit() function in the current class you’re in.

& preceding a variable means it’s a reference (pointer) to this variable and not the actual value. Of course it will still return the value when called but it does it sort of like a shortcut would to open file. Here’s an example to help you understand.

$variable1 = "one"; //set $variable1
$variable2 = &$variable1; //make $variable2 reference $variable1

echo $variable1; //echos "one"
echo "<br>";
echo $variable2; //echos "one"
echo "<hr>";

$variable1 = "two"; //only change the value of $variable1

echo $variable1; //echos "two"
echo "<br>";
echo $variable2; //echos "two"
echo "<hr>";

$variable2 = "three"; //only change the value of $variable2 (which is actually $variable1 by reference)

echo $variable1; //echos "three"
echo "<br>";
echo $variable2; //echos "three"
echo "<hr>";

Another way to understand it would be like…

function change_reference( &$ref ){
        $ref = "two";
}

$var1 = "one";

change_reference( $var1 );

echo $var1; //will echo "two"

You can start here http://php.net/manual/en/language.references.whatare.php and then use the References Explained menu links to dig deeper.

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