PHP foreach change original array values [duplicate]

In PHP, passing by reference (&) is … controversial. I recommend not using it unless you know why you need it and test the results.

I would recommend doing the following:

foreach ($fields as $key => $field) {
    if ($field['required'] && strlen($_POST[$field['name']]) <= 0) {
        $fields[$key]['value'] = "Some error";
    }
}

So basically use $field when you need the values, and $fields[$key] when you need to change the data.