coding practise - concatenation etc

cretaceous

I've been going through some of my old scripts removing kludgy code,
anyway I noticed I have this sometimes :

<?php echo $myvar ?>

notice there is no closing semi-colon, but it works ok - why does it work ?

it must be bad practise surely ?

Also I've started changing more complex echo statements to concatenated style:

echo "this is a ".$myvar." balloon";
instead of
echo "this is a $myvar balloon";
whether I'm using single quotes or double

and I only use commas when I'm debugging:
echo "myvar", $myvar;

Is there any preferred method on this ?

ClarkF1

Personally I only use concatenation when echoing array elements. Other than that it I'm echoing a int or a string I just include it in the double quotes.

Installer

The manual says:

The closing tag of a block of PHP code automatically implies a semicolon; you do not need to have a semicolon terminating the last line of a PHP block.

The methods you're using are preferred by some and not preferred by others. In any case, they work fine.

ahundiak

It's not uncommon to leave out the semi-colon for templating code. Makes it easier to read. In fact:
<?php echo $myvar ?>
Could be reduced to:
<?= $myvar ?>
As long as your system supports it.

cretaceous

ahundiak wrote:
... In fact:
<?php echo $myvar ?>
Could be reduced to:
<?= $myvar ?>
As long as your system supports it.

um - now that I know IS deprecated 😉

matto

echo "this is a ".$myvar." balloon";

If you "break up" your concatenations like this, why not change the double quotes into single ones?
You don't need the parsing anymore anyway, and in theory you could improve performance a little bit by preventing it completely.

ahundiak

cretaceous wrote:
um - now that I know IS deprecated 😉

Nope. Perfectly fine. As long as you accept the notion that it limits your server configuration.

ragedigital

The biggest issue is consistency.

If you're going to do it, do it the same everywhere.

ahundiak

ragedigital wrote:
The biggest issue is consistency.

If you're going to do it, do it the same everywhere.

Disagree. Readability and maintainability trumphs consistency.

ragedigital

I'm not saying to "consistently" write code although it may be poorly read or unable to be easily managed.

How about having consistent code that is easy to read and maintain...

Weedpacket

matto wrote:
If you "break up" your concatenations like this, why not change the double quotes into single ones?
You don't need the parsing anymore anyway, and in theory you could improve performance a little bit by preventing it completely.

Doesn't make any measurable difference.

NogDog

ahundiak wrote:
Nope. Perfectly fine. As long as you accept the notion that it limits your server configuration.

It's "perfectly fine" if you're not concerned about script portability and have control of your server. As per the manual page on basic syntax:

Note: Using short tags should be avoided when developing applications or libraries that are meant for redistribution, or deployment on PHP servers which are not under your control, because short tags may not be supported on the target server. For portable, redistributable code, be sure not to use short tags.

Weedpacket

As for the original observation about the apparent optionality of ; before ?>

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.instruction-separation.php

ragedigital

Weedpacket wrote:
As for the original observation about the apparent optionality of ; before ?>

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.instruction-separation.php

Too bad it would wreak havoc with most PHP editors... I understand it can work without issue, but it would make me think twice unless I'm using "notepad".

ahundiak

ragedigital wrote:
Too bad it would wreak havoc with most PHP editors... I understand it can work without issue, but it would make me think twice unless I'm using "notepad".

Not sure if 'most' is accurate. The ones I have used (PHP Eclipse and Zend IDE) work fine.

Weedpacket

You mean there are some where it does wreak havoc?