变量是否可以引用自身

Question

I've never seen something like this in a language, but I'm working with a PHP array and it would quite useful, but more than any thing, I'm curious.

Is it possible for a regular variable to reference itself. For example:

    $variable_array = array(1, 2);
    $variable_array = array_merge(self, array(3, 4));

or

    $variable_string = 'This is a string';
    $variable_string = explode(' ', self);

Where self is the variable itself, like this is when working with objects. Now, I know someone is going to ask why not just call the variable again, and that is what I normally do in this case. However, for readability when dealing with long names, such as named indexes in arrays, this would be useful.

Does PHP, or any language at all do this or something similar?

Answer 1

So, thanks to RandomSeed reminding me of variable references, I came up with what I think is the closest solution I'm likely to get.

Take this as an example:

   $array['index1']['index2']['index3']['index4'];
   $array['index1']['index2']['index3']['index4'] = array_merge(
         $array['index1']['index2']['index3']['index4'], 
         array('test' => 'answer'),
         array('test2' => 'answer'));

This is unappealing in my eyes, and a bit difficult to follow, especially if there are multiple of these on a page, or in a controller action.

So this is an alternative:

   $self = &$array['index1']['index2']['index3']['index4'];
   $array['index1']['index2']['index3']['index4'] = array_merge(
         $self, 
         array('test' => 'answer'),
         array('test2' => 'answer'));

A Quick test on my live environment seems to verify that it works.