Set element on last reference in an array of references

Question

I want to be able to do the following:

$normal_array       = array();
$array_of_arrayrefs = array(&$normal_array);

// Here I want to access the $normal_array reference **as a reference**,
// but that doesn't work obviously. How to do it?
end($array_of_arrayrefs)["one"] = 1; // choking on this one

print $normal_array["one"]; // should output 1

Answer 1

end() doesn't return a reference of the last value, but rather the last value itself. Here is a workaround:

$normal_array       = array();
$array_of_arrayrefs = array( &$normal_array );

$refArray = &end_byref( $array_of_arrayrefs );
$refArray["one"] = 1;

print $normal_array["one"]; // should output 1

function &end_byref( &$array ) {
    $lastKey = end(array_keys($array));
    end($array);
    return $array[$lastKey];
}