Chapter 5. Syntax and grammar

Table of Contents
Basic Syntax
Types
Variables
Constants
Expressions
Operators
Control Structures

PHP's syntax is borrowed primarily from C. Java and Perl have also influenced the syntax.

Basic Syntax

Escaping from HTML

There are four ways of escaping from HTML and entering "PHP code mode":

Example 5-1. Ways of escaping from HTML

1.  <? echo ("this is the simplest, an SGML processing instruction\n"); ?>
 
2.  <?php echo("if you want to serve XML documents, do like this\n"); ?>

3.  <script language="php"> 
        echo ("some editors (like FrontPage) don't
              like processing instructions");
    </script>

4.  <% echo ("As of PHP 3.0.4 you may optionally use ASP-style tags"); %>
    <%= $variable; # This is a shortcut for "<%echo .." %>
      

The first way is only available if short tags have been enabled (either by calling short_tags(), they are configured on using the short_tags run-time configuration setting, or they are enabled using the --enable-short-tags compile-time configuration setting.

The fourth way is only available if ASP-style tags have been enabled using either the asp_tags configuration setting or the --enable-asp-tags compile-time configuration setting.

The closing "bracket" for the block will include the immediately trailing newline if one is present.

Instruction separation

Instructions are separated the same as in C or perl - terminate each statement with a semicolon.

The closing tag (?>) also implies the end of the statement, so the following are equivalent:

<?php
    echo "This is a test";
?>

<?php echo "This is a test" ?>
      

Comments

PHP supports 'C', 'C++' and Unix shell-style comments. For example:

<?php
    echo "This is a test"; // This is a one-line c++ style comment
    /* This is a multi line comment
       yet another line of comment */
    echo "This is yet another test";
    echo "One Final Test"; # This is shell-style style comment
?>
     

The "one-line" comment styles actually only comment to the end of the line or the current block of PHP code, whichever comes first.

<h1>This is an <?# echo "simple";?> example.</h1>
<p>The header above will say 'This is an example'.

You should be careful not to nest 'C' style comments, which can happen when commenting out large blocks.

<?php
 /* 
    echo "This is a test"; /* This comment will cause a problem */
 */
?>