Thanks David. If my understanding is correct, then: SPControlPanel::getContentTypes($db); is a reference to a static instantiation of the class. If so, then it must be syntactically something like when using 'new' (which returns a reference) so there's no need to apply the & operator. Am I on the right track? I have some more PHP4 code in the application which caused: "PHP Notice: Only variable references should be returned by reference". I have fixed it like this: < function & _getTable($cached=true) < { < return new TableClass($this->_getTableName()); --- > function & _getTable($cached=true) { > $temp = new TableClass($this->_getTableName()); > return $temp; Is this acceptable? I'll have to come back to the $db issue - it's not issuing a warning so I'll leave it alone until I've tidied up all the other issues. Regards, Tom -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php