Pre-incrementation vs. post-incrementation

Pre- or post-incrementing do not magically delay things until later. It's simply inline shorthand.

// pre-increment
$var = 5;
print(++$var); // increments first, then passes value (now 6) to print()

// post-increment
$var = 5;
print($var++); // passes value (still 5) to print(), then increments

Now let's look at a loop.

for ($i = 0; $i < 9; $i++) {
    print($i);
}

The last part of the loop declaration (the $i++) is simply the statement to execute after each time through the loop. It "passes" the value to nowhere, then increments it. $i isn't used anywhere at that time. Later when the next statement is executed (print($i);), the value of $i has already increased.

// add 1, then do nothing with $i
for ($i = 0; $i < 9; ++$i) {}

// do nothing with $i, then add 1
for ($i = 0; $i < 9; $i++) {}

Whichever way you do it, $i will be the same within the loop.

If it helps, you can think of them as small routines that kind of do this:

// ++$i
{
    $i = $i + 1;
    return $i;
}

// $i++
{
    return $i;
    $i = $i + 1;
}

As I reread your question, I think the confusion is more with how the loop works than how increment operators work. Keeping in mind that the increment is a straightforward, all-at-once operation, here's how third expression in the loop works.

// here's a basic loop
for ($i = 0; $i < 9; $i++) {
    // do loop stuff
    print($i);
}

// this is exactly what happens
for ($i = 0; $i < 9; ) {
    // do loop stuff
    print($i);

    $i++;
}

Just because that last line can be put in the loop declaration doesn't give it any special powers. There are no references or anything used behind the scenes. The same $i variable is seen both inside and outside the loop. Every statement inside or outside the loop directly looks up the value of $i when necessary. That's it. No funny business.

a++ is known as postfix.

add 1 to a, returns the old value.

++a is known as prefix.

add 1 to a, returns the new value.

C#:

string[] items = {"a","b","c","d"};
int i = 0;
foreach (string item in items)
{
    Console.WriteLine(++i);
}
Console.WriteLine("");

i = 0;
foreach (string item in items)
{
    Console.WriteLine(i++);
}

Output:

1
2
3
4

0
1
2
3

foreach and while loops depend on which increment type you use. With for loops like below it makes no difference as you're not using the return value of i:

for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) { Console.Write(i);}
Console.WriteLine("");
for (int i = 0; i < 5; ++i) { Console.Write(i); }

0 1 2 3 4
0 1 2 3 4

If the value as evaluated is used then the type of increment becomes significant:

int n = 0;
for (int i = 0; n < 5; n = i++) { }

References mechanism of PHP language has specific feature, that is not common to other programming languages. It is commonly accepted that object reflects all changes, made to its properties through any reference to it. But assignment to reference itself is either prohibited or makes the reference point to another object. Instead of this, assignment to reference in PHP substitutes the whole underlying object (object pointed by reference) with the one, beeing assigned. So

$a = 1; $b = 2;
$r = &$a;
$r = $b;
echo $a; // will output '2'

This is true to assigment, but not true to unset call, which will not destroy underlying object, but break the link between the reference and pointed object.

$a = 1; $b = 2;
$r = &$a;
unset($r); //!
$r = $b;
echo $a; // will output '1'

This reference behaviour is useful in some cases, but it is often misunderstood, what leads to problems like shown in question.

To aviod problems with PHP references you should:

• Unset every reference as early as possible (at the point when it becomes unnecessary).

So, this code will work

<?php
$data = array('a','b','c');

foreach( $data as &$x ) 
    $x = strtoupper($x);
unset($x);

$extradata = array('d','e','f'); 
// actually it was MySQL cursor

while( list($i,$x) = each($extradata) ) {
    $data[] = strtoupper($x);
}

print_r($data);
?>

• Generally it is considered a bad style to reuse local variable names in several control structures.

So the following code will work too

<?php
$data = array('a','b','c');

foreach( $data as &$x ) 
    $x = strtoupper($x);

$extradata = array('d','e','f'); 
// actually it was MySQL cursor

while( list($i,$y) = each($extradata) ) {
    $data[] = strtoupper($y);
}