How to make a copy of an object without reference?

Question

It is well documented that PHP5 OOP objects are passed by reference by default. If this is by default, it seems to me there is a no-default way to copy with no reference, how??

function refObj($object){
    foreach($object as &$o){
        $o = 'this will change to ' . $o;
    }

    return $object;
}

$obj = new StdClass;
$obj->x = 'x';
$obj->y = 'y';

$x = $obj;

print_r($x)
// object(stdClass)#1 (3) {
//   ["x"]=> string(1) "x"
//   ["y"]=> string(1) "y"
// }

// $obj = refObj($obj); // no need to do this because
refObj($obj); // $obj is passed by reference

print_r($x)
// object(stdClass)#1 (3) {
//   ["x"]=> string(1) "this will change to x"
//   ["y"]=> string(1) "this will change to y"
// }

At this point I would like $x to be the original $obj, but of course it's not. Is there any simple way to do this or do I have to code something like this

Answer 1

<?php
$x = clone($obj);

So it should read like this:

<?php
function refObj($object){
    foreach($object as &$o){
        $o = 'this will change to ' . $o;
    }

    return $object;
}

$obj = new StdClass;
$obj->x = 'x';
$obj->y = 'y';

$x = clone($obj);

print_r($x)

refObj($obj); // $obj is passed by reference

print_r($x)