(PHP 7 >= 7.4.0, PHP 8)
Weak references allow the programmer to retain a reference to an object which does not prevent the object from being destroyed. They are useful for implementing cache like structures.
WeakReferences cannot be serialized.
Example #1 Basic WeakReference Usage
<?php$obj = new stdClass;$weakref = WeakReference::create($obj);var_dump($weakref->get());unset($obj);var_dump($weakref->get());?>
The above example will output something similar to:
object(stdClass)#1 (0) { } NULL