Actionscript 3 :: Changing The Value Of A Var Via Reference?

I need to pass a variable reference to a function, and have the function change the value of the variable.

So, simplified and not in completely correct syntax, something like this:

function replaceValue(element:*, newValue:String):void
{
element = newValue;
}

[Code]....

Of course, in the replaceValue function, element is a new reference to fungibleValue (or, rather, a new reference to fungibleValue's value). So, while element gets set to the value of newValue, fungibleValue does not change. That's expected but totally not what I want, in this case.

There's a similar question, for Ruby, here [URL]

As the question points out, Ruby has a way to accomplish this. BUT is there any way to do this in ActionScript?