What does reference means in ActionScript?

What does reference means in ActionScript?

- Reference is a pointer in the ActionScript that defines the instance of a class to be called using different objects.

- The ActionScript reference doesn’t create any copy of the instance but it allows the accessing to be made of the same memory space.

- ActionScript references are made up of objects and not copied to be used with other services.

- The example of it is as follows:
var item1:XML=new XML("<node><child/></node>");
var item2:XML=item1;
item2.firstChild.attributes.value=13;