Style and performance issue

[gdbdx]

Is it better to have :

<table>
<tr>
<td>
<?php echo $var1; ?>
</td>
<td>
<?php echo $var2; ?>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<?php echo $var3; ?>
</td>
<td>
<?php echo $var4; ?>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

than :

<?php
echo '<table><tr><td>', $var1, '</td><td>', $var2, '</td></tr><tr><td>', $var3, '</td><td>', $var4, '</td></tr></table>';
?>

[OhLordy]

Neither, use CSS

[OhLordy]

But if you did want to ignore web standards lots of echoes takes more than one single one. However catenating your strings with ',' will not work, use '.'.
HTH
Bubble

[seby]

the second will be faster, while you wont notice in a web browser its more efficient.. use periods as well instead of commas..

echo '<td>' . $var . '</tr>';

[Weedpacket]

A few points:

1. There is no indication that these tables are being used for layout instead of displaying tabular data - CSS is not necessarily relevant;

2. You can use , to echo multiple strings;

3. The first is optimal server side, since it means PHP doesn't have to parse strings of HTML as well;

4. The second example sends less gratuitous whitespace to the client;

5. It's nice to be able to read source code - keep that in mind.

<table>
<tr><td><?php echo $var1?></td><td><?php echo $var2?></td></tr>
<tr><td><?php echo $var3?></td><td><?php echo $var4?></td></tr>
</table>

[drawmack]

tables do still have their place and it doesn't appear that he's using a hidden table for layout which is what should be relegated to css.

[dave420]

Using invisible tables for layout is perfectly acceptable. It's supported on 99.999% of the browsers out there. CSS isn't, and certainly doesn't offer the cross-browser compatability of tables.

CSS is nowhere near as good as tables for pixel-perfect positioning.

[AstroTeg]

Originally posted by Weedpacket
A few points:
The first is optimal server side, since it means PHP doesn't have to parse strings of HTML as well

Just looking for clarification: By "parsing" you referring to the string itself or the act of PHP looking for nested PHP variables? By using the single quotes, PHP won't be fishing for PHP variables (unlike double quotes). Which I'd think wouldn't be too costly versus if the strings were wrapped with double quotes.

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by dave420
Using invisible tables for layout is perfectly acceptable. It's supported on 99.999% of the browsers out there. CSS isn't, and certainly doesn't offer the cross-browser compatability of tables.

CSS is nowhere near as good as tables for pixel-perfect positioning.

So let's dump CSS and go back to table tag soup, along with all the fun and games of vast wodges of HTML being sent out to the client (look at this page for an example), slow rendering, and the excitement of editing the layout.

</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td></tr></table>

<!-- spacer --></td><td width="10"><img width="10" height="1" src="images/space.gif" alt=""></td></tr></table>
<table bgcolor="#FFFFFF" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td width="10"><img width="10" height="1" src="images/space.gif" alt=""></td><td width="100%"><!-- spacer -->

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="100%" align="center"><tr><td>
<table cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#DFDFDF" width="175" valign="top" nowrap> 

[swr]

ARghgh!!! MY EYES!!!!!

Quick, somebody get me some Perl line noise to look at!