PHP's assignment by reference is not working as expected

Question

Why the following

class AClass
{
    public function __construct ()
    {
        $this->prop = \"Hello\";
    }
    public function &get ()
    {
                


        

Answer 1

class AClass
{
    public function __construct ()
    {
        $this->prop = "Hello";
    }
    public function &get ()
    {
        return $this->prop;
    }
    protected $prop;
}

function func (&$ref)
{
    $ref = $ref->get(); // You don't need the ampersand here
}

$value = new AClass();
func($value);
var_dump( $value ); // outputs: string(5) "Hello"