[RESOLVED] how PHP interprets code

dinosoup

This is gonna sound stupid. I just realized I don't even understand how it works.

For example:

<?php
if (true)
{
?>

<p>HTML 1</p>

<?php
}
else
{
?>

<p>HTML 2</p>

<?php
}
?>

"HTML 1" and "HTML 2" are blocks of HTML (no PHP code).

I thought this will output both "HTML 1" and "HTML 2". Because I thought PHP will just copy and output everything outside of PHP tags untouched. So I thought the above will be the same as following:

<?php
if (true)
{
}
else
{
}
?>
<p>HTML 1</p>
<p>HTML 2</p>

But it will actually only output only one HTML block depending on the if condition.

Anyone understand what I'm trying to say?

madwormer2

I reckon you didn't click "save" after you edited the file to the second code snippet.

Either that or you're viewing the wrong file altogether. Both code snippets work as you expected them to.

dinosoup

I'm sure that's not the case. The two code snippets don't work the same. The first code snippet I've seen in a tutorial example and got me scratching my head so I tested it out. I would of never thought of doing it that way, I would of just used "echo" function to output the HTML, so everything is inside one <?php ?> pair.

madwormer2

Oh, you're talking about the first one, yes, of course it does that.

Php sees the if condition, and parses if, if it's false, it'll completely skip whats in the brackets, and move to the else section. PHP doesn't care WHAT is between the brackets, it'll only parse the PHP code, as that's what it does.

You can go in and out of PHP as much as you want. Although echo may have been sufficient for this example, switching to html output and then switching back to echo out simple variables can be easier to manage with very large pages. Plus editors will colour code the HTML if it's outside of PHP, whereas inside the quote's it's all one colour, which can lead to some confusion.

dinosoup

Ah sorry I wasn't clear in my original post. I think I got it now. Thanks!