PHP Coding style

savvas

I am currently considering whether which is better in terms of coding style when outputting html, single or double quotes?

If we take aside the performance issue it seems to me that single quotes result to easier to read code eg:

print"<a href='$PHP_SELF'>this is the link</a>";

It does translate the variable to its value, you don't need to escape quotes, special characters like \n are understood and so on.

The only thing that makes me have second thoughts is that from what I understand double quotes are the official way of enclosing attributes. Single quotes will work but this may depend on the standard (eg XHTML?).

Any views on this? confused:

Savvas:

LordShryku

Double quotes are the standards in tags. You can read about that on http://w3.org

psolus21

You might note that single (') or double (") are both valid in standard HTML 4.0

I for one use single quotes in all html.

drawmack

yes and html 4.0 is depricated, in xhtml you must use double quotes, attriburtes must be in lowercase, and you must quote all attributes

psolus21

But HTML 4.01 is not deprecated. And the rules go the same for the quotes.

Weedpacket

Originally posted by drawmack
yes and html 4.0 is depricated, in xhtml you must use double quotes, attriburtes must be in lowercase, and you must quote all attributes

Urban myth, that; XML (and hence XHTML) explicitly allows both quoting styles, and no mention is made of either being deprecated (not even in XML1.1).

drawmack

Quotes taken from: http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/

XHTML 1.0 is the first major change to HTML since HTML 4.0 was released in 1997.

XHTML is the next generation of HTML. Taking this and extrapolating on the past. Anyone still writting in html 3.0? The new version of a language always depricates previous versions of a language.

laserlight

In a way, yes, HTML 4.01 is deprecated.
Still, I agree that both double quotes and single quotes are allowed as attribute delimiters.

In this case, the concern PHP-wise would be variable extrapolation.

As such,
echo '<a href="$PHP_SELF">this is the link</a>';
would be preferred, assuming register_globals is on.

Otherwise, I believe it would be better (as per previous discussions) to use:
echo '<a href="' . $SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '">this is the link</a>';
or
echo "<a href='{$SERVER['PHP_SELF']}'>this is the link</a>";

dnszero

In soviet russia, there are no quotes!

Off the record though, I prefer the style of the first post
print"<a href='$PHP_SELF'>this is the link</a>";