[echo](<http://php.net/manual/en/function.echo.php>)
and [print](<http://php.net/manual/en/function.print.php>)
are language constructs, not functions. This means that they don’t require parentheses around the argument like a function does (although one can always add parentheses around almost any PHP expression and thus echo("test")
won’t do any harm either). They output the string representation of a variable, constant, or expression. They can’t be used to print arrays or objects.
Joel
to the variable $name
$name = "Joel";
echo
& print
echo $name; #> Joel
print $name; #> Joel
echo($name); #> Joel
print($name); #> Joel
echo
)echo $name, "Smith"; #> JoelSmith
echo($name, " ", "Smith"); #> Joel Smith
print
, unlike echo
, is an expression (it returns 1
), and thus can be used in more places:print("hey") && print(" ") && print("you"); #> you11
print ("hey" && (print (" " && print "you"))); #> you11
echo
When outside of PHP tags, a shorthand notation for echo
is available by default, using <?=
to begin output and ?>
to end it. For example:
<p><?=$variable?></p>
<p><?= "This is also PHP" ?></p>
Note that there is no terminating ;
. This works because the closing PHP tag acts as the terminator for the single statement. So, it is conventional to omit the semicolon in this shorthand notation.
print
Although the print
is language construction it has priority like operator. It places between =
+=
-=
*=
**=
/=
.=
%=
&=
and and
operators and has left association. Example:
echo '1' . print '2' + 3; //output 511