What's the difference between and

Question

I can't find the answer anywhere. Thanks!

possible duplicate of [shorter way of echoing a variable in php?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1656795/shorter-way-of-echoing-a-variable-in-php) — karim79, Feb 05 '11 at 17:18
Bolt - Although I see your point, keep in mind this *is* a Q&A site. And this is actually a great title for the question - it will be much easier for someone to find than the dupe. — Justin Ethier, Feb 05 '11 at 17:22

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:43

9

Basically,

<? ?> are short tags. However, not every php installation has short tags enabled. Therefore, even though is faster to type than the normal tags (<?php ?>), it may not work if you move your code to another server.

Are PHP short tags acceptable to use?

EDIT: Also, if you're using xml in your web page, you might run into conflicts, as writing <?xml version="1.0"?> will make you run into a PHP error, as xml version="1.0" isn't PHP!

If you're using XML and PHP you may need to <?php echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\""; ?>

edited May 23 '17 at 11:43

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answered Feb 05 '11 at 17:18

Derek Maciel

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Shouldn't php react only to `` (where '_' means *space*)? – Oleh Prypin Feb 05 '11 at 17:29
@BlaXpirit Not at all. I just wrote a sample script, with "" as the code, and I got the following error: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '<' – Derek Maciel Feb 05 '11 at 17:30
Anyways, it's best to simply disable `short_open_tags` in php.ini, as I mentoined in my post. – anroesti Feb 05 '11 at 18:58

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 05 '11 at 17:18

3

In your php.ini, if you want <? and ?> to work, you need to turn on "short tags". However, it is better to write long-tag compliant code in the first place.

Acutally is no difference.

answered Feb 05 '11 at 17:18

Filip Krstic

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 05 '11 at 17:18

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They both mean the same, with the difference that the short form <? ?> is not always supported/enabled.

answered Feb 05 '11 at 17:18

Oleh Prypin

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 05 '11 at 17:19

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There acutally is no difference between the two, the second one is bascially just a shorthand. I personally would recommend using the longer version, because on some systems, the second possibilty is disabled in the php.ini (see short_open_tags).

answered Feb 05 '11 at 17:19

anroesti

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score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 05 '11 at 17:22

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It is always better to use <?php ?> as on some installations of php <? ?> is not supported! If this happens your code will not work!

edited Feb 05 '11 at 17:22

BoltClock

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answered Feb 05 '11 at 17:20

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What's the difference between and

5 Answers5