Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'new' (T_NEW) in .../test6_2.php on line 20

Question

Just trying to save and fix sources from PHPBench.com

and hit this error (the site is down and the author didn't respond to questions). This is the source:

<?php

// Initial Configuration
class SomeClass {
  function f() {

  }
}
$i = 0; //fix for Notice: Undefined variable i error

// Test Source
function Test6_2() {
  //global $aHash; //we don't need that in this test
  global $i; //fix for Notice: Undefined variable i error

  /* The Test */
  $t = microtime(true);
  while($i < 1000) {
    $obj =& new SomeClass();
    ++$i;
  }

  usleep(100); //sleep or you'll return 0 microseconds at every run!!!
  return (microtime(true) - $t);
}

?>

Is it a valid syntax or not? Correct me if I'm wrong but think it creates a reference to SomeClass, so we can call new $obj() ... Thanks in advance for the help

Solution

Objects are always stored by reference anyway. You don't need =& and as Charlotte commented, it's deprecated syntax.

Correct me if I'm wrong but think it creates a reference to SomeClass, so we can call new $obj() .

No, this is not correct. The new operator always creates an instance of the class, not a reference to the class as a type.

You can create a variable object instantiation simply by creating a string variable with the name of the class, and using that.

$class = "MyClass";
$obj = new $class();

Functions like get_class() or ReflectionClass::getName() return the class name as a string. There is no "reference to the class" concept in PHP like there is in Java.

The closest thing you're thinking of is ReflectionClass::newInstance() but this is an unnecessary way of creating an object dynamically. In almost every case, it's better to just use new $class().