I ask this question because i learned that in programming and designing, you must have a good reason for decisions. I am php learner and i am at a crossroad here, i am using simple incrementation to try to get what im askin across. I am certainly not here to start a debate about the pros/cons of pointers but when it comes to php, which is the better programming practice:

function increment(&$param) {
      $param++;
}

Or

function increment($param){
 return $param++;
}

$param = increment($param);