unset() static variable doesn't work?

Question

See this code: http://codepad.org/s8XnQJPN

function getvalues($delete = false)
{
   static $x;
   if($delete)
   {
      echo \"array before deleting:\\n\";
             


        

Answer 1

From the Doc

If a static variable is unset() inside of a function, unset() destroys the variable only in the context of the rest of a function. Following calls will restore the previous value of a variable.

function foo()
{
    static $bar;
    $bar++;
    echo "Before unset: $bar, ";
    unset($bar);
    $bar = 23;
    echo "after unset: $bar\n";
}

foo();
foo();
foo();

The above example will output:

Before unset: 1, after unset: 23
Before unset: 2, after unset: 23
Before unset: 3, after unset: 23