[RESOLVED] What do {} around a variable mean?

PureDrive

Hi, just a simple question - what do braces around a variable mean. Ex {$var1}? thanks

laserlight

Nothing much, just allows for more complex expressions. Read the PHP manual on strings for more information.

NogDog

Direct link to the topic: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.parsing.complex

PureDrive

Ah ok I see. It really is nothing special. Thanks.

kkobashi

Yes it is special. It depends on how you use it.

Its a convenient way to eliminate overuse of string concatenation operators and write string expressions. It also allows you to create "fill-in" templates with HEREDOC strings.

For example, suppose you want a means to insert the language for a XHTML DOCTYPE:

    $lang = "en";
    $docStart = <<< DOC_START
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//{$lang}" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html lang="{$lang}" xml:lang="{$lang}" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
DOC_START;

I would hate to have to string concat the above with the "." operator...

Another use is that it makes string building less prone to error and easier to read, especially when building HTML tags:

echo "<img src='{$href}' />";

rather than:

echo "<img src='" . $href . "'/>";

or even:

echo "<img src=\"" . $href . "\"/>";