Echo vs Print

KITTfan2K

Which is better, echo or print?

And how do I make the PHP accept the '+' sign in a variable name, because whenever I try it, it comes back with the ' ' (space) character.

edit: variable testing suite by me!

KITTfan2K

Traduim

I think there's no diference between echo and print.

piersk

I've had some funny things come up when I've been trying to use print.

This is what I usually use, but whenever I use the following code (which I use quite a lot):

<form action="<?php print "$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']"; ?>" method="post">

I get a really wierd error.

However, when I use echo instead of print it works fine. This is the only time when I've used echo instead of print. Otherwise (as Tradium said) there's no difference.

philipolson

Piersk, your code won't work with echo or print. You can't quote your array keys like that within strings. In fact, there is no need for double quotes there at all. Try:

// Do this
<form action="<?php print $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post">

// For arrays in strings, one can do:
<?php print "A foo {$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']} bar"; ?>
// Or
<?php print "A foo $_SERVER[PHP_SELF] bar"; ?>

It's important to quote your keys when outside of strings, here's why.

There are a few differences between echo and print. First, print behaves more like a function as it returns 1 (true) on success, echo does not. Also, echo allows for alternative syntax with commas. For details, see:

http://www.php.net/echo
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/1/fid/40

And lastly, you can never have a + in a variable name.

JohnM_2000

As I understand it, print returns a value, and is evaluated in list context. Therefore, you always always want echo, because it's faster and less likely to interfere with your coding.

JohnM_2000

Originally posted by KITTfan2K
Which is better, echo or print?

And how do I make the PHP accept the '+' sign in a variable name, because whenever I try it, it comes back with the ' ' (space) character.

edit: variable testing suite by me!

KITTfan2K

In HTTP, a + is converted to a space, because spaces cannot be sent through HTTP.

KITTfan2K

Originally posted by JohnM_2000

In HTTP, a + is converted to a space, because spaces cannot be sent through HTTP.

But is there any way to send a '+' using http?

KF2K

zhopa

If you are trying to pass the '+' into an URL, use the rawurlencode() function. It will pass it to the URL as a percent sign and 2 hex digits.

Got lost going from print to echo to passing http...anyways in answer to the last refer to this.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.rawurlencode.php