How do I append to a field?

[bayridge]

Repost. I posted this on General forum by mistake. Guess it belongs here. Sorry.

I have a field that I want to append to during my script execution. For instance, I start with the code:

$field = "partone";

This works fine, $field one is equal to "partone". Then some more code.

And then I want to add to $field:

$field = $field + "parttwo";

This doesn't work. $field is "0" after this executes. I want $field to contain "partone parttwo" at this time. I am a newbie to php.

Thanks for any help.

[Anon]

I believe the answer lies in this

$variable = "blue";
$variable .= "mountain";

print $variable;
// prints "bluemountain"

[Anon]

Oh ya, and the reason:

In PHP, a "0" means, "false."

If a variable has any numeric value at all, it is considered, "true."

So, notice in your example:

$variable = "partone" + "parttwo";

There is no "numeric" number ("numeric" as in a "1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). You just have two words (known as, "strings"). PHP sees that plus sign "+" and notices that there is no numeric value. Therefore, it is "false," and "0" means false.

Now, if you went like this:
$variable = "partone" + "parttwo" + 7;
print $variable;

php will print a "7" for you.

Now, back to the original question. You need to use the concatenation operator (otherwise known as a "period" ".")

You could have:
$field = "partone"."parttwo";
print $field

and that will print this:
partoneparttwo

And, one more thing......When you are printing or echoing "strings" (actual words), use a single quotation mark. The double quotation mark tells PHP to try to interpret it if there might be a variable in there

right:
$variable = 'here is some words';
// php is fast (doesn't try to search for variable)

not so good:
$variable = "here is some words";
// php tries to find a variable

right:
$anothervariable = 'apple pie';
print "$anothervariable";
// prints apple pie

wrong:
$anothervariable = 'apple pie';
print '$anothervariable';
// prints $anothervariable