Just Learning PHP

I know a thing or two about HTML writing, what I want to know is how to
get the simple PHP scripts I am writing to match the HTML formatting I
want on my Page?

"Blue_Hatter" <Bluehatchet@Gmail.com> wrote in message
news:fblk10$ovb$1@aioe.org...
>I know a thing or two about HTML writing, what I want to know is how to get
>the simple PHP scripts I am writing to match the HTML formatting I want on
>my Page?

PHP can output whatever you want it to :
<?php
echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>Click here to visit my site</a>";
?>
is pretty much the same as
<a href='www.mydomain.com'>Click here to visit my site</a>

and you can add variables :

<?php
$fred = 'Click here to visit my site;
echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>$fred</a>";
?>
because the variable $fred is inside double quotes it will get expanded to
its string value on output.

If you are looking for more powerful formatting features try phpclasses :
--
http://ronbarnett.users.phpclasses.org/

or the pear extensions on PHP.net

If you do understand HTML using PHP to tweak it and make pages dynamic is
easy.

Cheers

Ron

> <?php
> $fred = 'Click here to visit my site;
> echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>$fred</a>";
> ?>



Shouldnt that be :

echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>{$fred}</a>";


Seriously, What's the deal with using brackets inside am
interpolation?

In article <1189090148.229899.215350@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups. com>,
macca <ptmcnally@googlemail.com> wrote:

> > <?php
> > $fred = 'Click here to visit my site;
> > echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>$fred</a>";
> > ?>
>
>
>
> Shouldnt that be :
>
> echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>{$fred}</a>";
>
>
> Seriously, What's the deal with using brackets inside am
> interpolation?

I always do this:

echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>" . $fred . "</a>";

Then it's a lot clearer (to me, at any rate), due to reduced nesting.

macca wrote:
>> <?php
>> $fred = 'Click here to visit my site;
>> echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>$fred</a>";
>> ?>
>
>
>
> Shouldnt that be :
>
> echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>{$fred}</a>";
>
>
> Seriously, What's the deal with using brackets inside am
> interpolation?
>
If by "Whats the deal?" you want to know why they are used....

Both versions will work inside a double quotes string (or here doc).
Single quoted strings are not expanded.

If the variable reference is compound (e.g. $a[4], $this->var) then
braces are necessary.

[echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>$fred</a>";] is essentially the same
speed as [echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>{$fred}</a>";] while [echo
"<a href='www.mydomain.com'>".$fred."</a>"; ] is slower.

Leaving braces out when they are not necessary makes the code clearer.

If you mean "Why shouldn't I do it?"...

Its your code. <shrug>

Regards

Ian

Ok, thanks Ian.

I did a little reading on compound variables.

The problem I was'nt quite understanding is where the braces are
needed,

as the string

"<a href=\"page.htm\">$var</a>";

has other characters (HTML) directly after the name of the variable
without any spaces.

Does this not matter?

Tim Streater wrote:
> In article <1189090148.229899.215350@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups. com>,
> macca <ptmcnally@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>>> <?php
>>> $fred = 'Click here to visit my site;
>>> echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>$fred</a>";
>>> ?>
>>
>>
>> Shouldnt that be :
>>
>> echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>{$fred}</a>";
>>
>>
>> Seriously, What's the deal with using brackets inside am
>> interpolation?
>
> I always do this:
>
> echo "<a href='www.mydomain.com'>" . $fred . "</a>";
>
> Then it's a lot clearer (to me, at any rate), due to reduced nesting.

Same here.
If the expression is complex I prefer jumping out of the string.
When it is a simple variable, I often put it in the string.
I prefer readability of code always over speed (if it matters at all).

And when you need a lot of HTML, just jump out of PHP, like:

<?php
// some db action
?>
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<?php echo $row["name"]; ?>
</td>
<td>
<?php echo $row["favcolor"]; ?>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<?php
// back into PHP
?>


That avoids the messy echos.
But in the end, I think, it is a matter of taste.

Regards,
Erwin Moller

I have faced confusing situations using curly braces around an array,
as well as quotes within square brackets in an array. I wish had hard
examples to offer, but perhaps someone knows the general rule.

I have had expressions involving arrays refuse to work when I put
curly braces around them and then work when I removed them. Other
times the expression doesn't work until I add them.

Similarly with arrays, at times I have had to add and at other times
remove quotes within square brackets in order to get the expression to
work ($array['key']).

I have never been able to derive a consistent rule for either of these
two constructs.

Does anyone know the rules here for when one or the other is required
or not allowed?

--Kenoli

macca wrote:
> Ok, thanks Ian.
>
> I did a little reading on compound variables.
>
> The problem I was'nt quite understanding is where the braces are
> needed,
>
> as the string
>
> "<a href=\"page.htm\">$var</a>";
>
> has other characters (HTML) directly after the name of the variable
> without any spaces.
>
> Does this not matter?
>
Hi Macca,

No - the parser will recognise the $ and what follows it as a variable
name, and will stop with the next character that can't be part of a
variable name (IIRC only letters, digits, and _ are allowed).

thus

$var = "fred";
$array[2] = "bill";
echo ">$var<"; // = '>fred<'

echo ">$array[2]<"; // error ($array is not convertible to a string.)

echo ">{$array[2]}<" // = '>bill<'

Regards

Ian

Kenoli wrote:

>
> I have never been able to derive a consistent rule for either of these
> two constructs.
>
> Does anyone know the rules here for when one or the other is required
> or not allowed?
>

Hi Kenoli,

It is explained very well in the manual - with examples.

The key part about curly braces is here.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/languag...arsing.complex

Regards

Ian