thank you for the reply. i had a small misunderstanding regarding variable reference...now its clear but.. the output of <?php $x = 1; $a1 = array(&$x); var_dump($a1); ?> is array(1) { [0]=> &int(1) } while for <?php $x = 1; $a1 = array(&$x); var_dump($a1[0]); ?> it is int(1) can u tell me what & signifies here??