Meaning of "<<

Question

I am trying to include some javascript for the google analytics ecommerce tracking.

In the example code I see something like this, in which I have replaced the variables with my own.

<?php
 function getTransactionJs(&$order) {
        return <<<HTML
        ga('ecommerce:addTransaction', {
          'id': '{$order->ord_order_numner}',
          'affiliation': 'Marcella',
          'revenue': '{$order->total_payment}',
          'shipping': '0',
          'tax': '0'
        });
        HTML;
    }


echo getTransactionJs($order);
 ?>

However I met with a syntax error. May I ask what is the meaning of

return <<<HTML

Thanks in advance!

Heredoc: http://www.php.net/manual/de/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.syntax.heredoc. Btw. this is a question about PHP syntax, not Google Analytics, so the tag is somewhat misleading. — Eike Pierstorff, Aug 06 '13 at 07:32

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 07:58

1

It's a way to define a string on multiple lines. Your string begin juste after the <<<HTML and ends at HTML; The HTML word can be replaced by whatever you want.

See Heredoc syntax.

answered Aug 06 '13 at 07:58

Maxime Lorant

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 07:56

0

It’s PHP’s Heredoc syntax. I’m not a fan of it though.

answered Aug 06 '13 at 07:56

Martin Bean

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 08:30

0

As suggested read the manual, but consider not to use this kind of syntax.

To make your life easier - in most cases the problem is with text indenting.

HTML;

Must be at the start of the line not indented!

answered Aug 06 '13 at 08:30

Sergei Beregov

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Meaning of "<<

3 Answers3