PHP arrays not index-able - php

Question

I am porting C# code to PHP.
However, it seems like PHP ignores the array references. The code below gives out the last element 3 times. How can I fix this?
class Participants
{
public $name;
public $country;
public $town;
}
class Test
{
public function __construct()
{
$this->List = array(new Participants());
}
public function test()
{
$p = new Participants();
$p->name = "Harry";
$p->town = "Washington";
$p->country = "USA";
$List[0] = $p;
$p->name = "Janette";
$p->town = "Amsterdam";
$p->country = "Netherlands";
$List[1] = $p;
$p->name = "Piotr";
$p->town = "Moscow";
$p->country = "Russia";
$List[2] = $p;
echo $List[0]->name;
echo $List[1]->name;
echo $List[2]->name;
// this unfortunately ignores the index and echoes 3 times the last element.
}
}//end Test Class

Answer 1

Arrays in PHP are actually ordered hashmaps and they are indexable. Your problem has nothing to do with "indexes being ignored". Your problem is that $List[0], $List[1] and $List[2] are all references to the same object.

Answer 2

Objects are mutable, you only make 1 unique object and change the name/town/country 3 times.
When you assign $p to $List[0] you do not make a copy of the object, but instead give $List[0] a reference to the same object as $p, which you then proceed to alter.
If you want 3 objects you need to make 3 objects:
$p = new Participants();
$p->name = "Harry";
$p->town = "Washington";
$p->country = "USA";
$List[0] = $p;
$p = new Participants();
$p->name = "Janette";
$p->town = "Amsterdam";
$p->country = "Netherlands";
$List[1] = $p;
$p = new Participants();
$p->name = "Piotr";
$p->town = "Moscow";
$p->country = "Russia";
$List[2] = $p;
This works the same in nearly every OOP language BTW, including C#. The difference is that in C# you can define a value type (struct or enumeration) which does make a full copy when assigning. My guess is that the C# Participants is a struct.