question from an absolute beginner

Davidc316

Does anyone know what the following line of PHP code does...

print " ";

I've been trying to work my way through a book on learning PHP and this strange line has started to appear all over the place in example scripts from the book. In a very simple script I've seen cases where the line appears lots and lots of times. The trouble is, the book never explains what print " "; means or what it does.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

wil

The " " is a newline or a return in HTML. Since PHP outputs HTML this will give you a new line to print on.

Wil

Davidc316

In an attempt to make things a little clearer, I'll copy out an example script straight from the book which uses this strange line. Here goes...

<html>
<head>
<title>Listing 4.1 Testing the type of a variable</title>
</head>
<body?
<?php
$testing; //declares a variable without assigning a value
print gettype ( $testing ); //null
print " ";
$testing = 5;
print gettype ( $testing ); //integer
print (" ");
$testing = 5.0;
print gettype ( testing ); //double
print (" ");
$testing = true;
print gettype ( $testing ); //boolean
print " ";
?>
</body>
</html>

Davidc316

Aaaaah. Thanks Will! That explanation makes sense.

I must've posted my last thread about two seconds after you posted yours cos I never noticed what you'd said there untill just that minute.

There is one question though....

how come the html sometimes uses curvy brackets e.g, "()" and sometimes it uses pointy brackets "<>" and other times it uses combinations of both types of brackets together?

Is there any mega important reason for this or am I dwelling on something trivial?

wil

Are you talking about when you do this

print (" ");

versus

print " ";

It should not make a difference normally but I have had instances when I do have to use the () around things. WHy I reallt don't know I usually learn by trial and error.

Wil

Davidc316

Yes, that's what I was talking about.

I guess that's as good an answer as I could've hoped for.

Thanks!