[DJMaze]

you can't forget the first, you can forget the last though.

If you want to forget the function must work differently like blah($array)

& means you send the data as reference (pointer), If you don't use & the data gets copied.

<?php

function blah($var) {
    $var = 'no reference';
}
function ref(@$var) {
    $var = 'reference';
}

$a_var = 'a string';
blah($a_var);
echo $a_var;

ref($a_var);
echo $a_var;

this will output:

a string
reference