void append_by_ref string varname mixed var void append_by_ref string varname mixed var boolean merge This is used to append values to the templates by reference. If you append a variable by reference then change its value, the appended value sees the change as well. For objects, append_by_ref() also avoids an in-memory copy of the appended object. See the PHP manual on variable referencing for an in-depth explanation. If you pass the optional third parameter of true, the value will be merged with the current array instead of appended. The merge parameter respects array keys, so if you merge two numerically indexed arrays, they may overwrite each other or result in non-sequential keys. This is unlike the array_merge() function of PHP which wipes out numerical keys and renumbers them. // appending name/value pairs $smarty->append_by_ref("Name",$myname); $smarty->append_by_ref("Address",$address);