here is an unconventional (and not very fast) way of detecting references within arrays:
<?php
function is_array_reference ($arr, $key) {
$isRef = false;
ob_start();
var_dump($arr);
if (strpos(preg_replace("/[ \n\r]*/i", "", preg_replace("/( ){4,}.*(\n\r)*/i", "", ob_get_contents())), "[" . $key . "]=>&") !== false)
$isRef = true;
ob_end_clean();
return $isRef;
}
?>