If statement within an echo statement?

sideslip

I have a series of fields being drawn from a db and displayed on the page. I would like to insert an image if the value of one of the fields == 1 otherwise no image - I can't quite get my head around the right way to do this.

I know the following syntax is wrong, but this is what I'd like it to do:

echo "<p>" . $itemname . "<br />" . $itemdescription . "<br />" . (if ($showitem == 1) echo <img src="image.jpg">; ) . "</p>";

If some kind soul could correct my syntax or tell be where I'm going wrong I'd be really grateful!

bubblenut

There are a number of ways of achiving this. Spliting the string up and using an if

echo("<p>$itemname<br />$itemdescription<br />";
if($showitem==1) {
  echo("<img src=\"image.jpg\" />");
}
echo("</p>");

... or using the terniary operator

echo("<p>$itemname<br />$itemdescription<br />" . ($showitem==1?"<img src=\"image.jpg\" />":'') . "</p>");

sideslip

The terniary operator thingy works like a charm! Thank you!

sideslip

Ermm - another question along similar lines - can I use the terniary thingy to bring up a message if there are no fields returned like this:

echo("<p>$jobtitle<br />$jobdescrip" . ($jobtitle=0?"Sorry no Vacancies":'') . "</p>");

Thanks for your help!

madwormer2

It's comparing, so it needs two ==, not just one, just like in the if() clauses.

sideslip

Ah so terniary things do comparisons? In this (second) case I'm after something that will insert the "sorry no vacancies" line if there are no fields returned.

madwormer2

Yeh, basically

echo ( (COMPARISON)? 'VALUE IF TRUE' : 'VALUE IF FALSE' );

Is the same as:
if(COMPARISON) echo 'VALUE IF TRUE';
else echo 'VALUE IF FALSE';

Just a shorter way of doing it.

sideslip

Thanks for that. I've learnt something new today (not an unusual occurence with me!).

I'll try to figure out something else for the null returns thing.

thanks