Whats the difference between and

Question

Can someone explain to me when <?= needs to be used or why this programmer would code this way? I'm working on creating a third party module for SPBAS and I nearly figured it out, I just don't know the significance of the two different options I've specified.

Thanks in advance.

first one will just call a function, second one will echo what it returns — Your Common Sense, Mar 31 '11 at 15:28
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3737139/reference-what-does-this-symbol-mean-in-php — Mike B, Mar 31 '11 at 15:32
possible duplicate of [What does this symbol mean in PHP =](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1963901/what-does-this-symbol-mean-in-php) — Gordon, Mar 31 '11 at 16:01

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 31 '11 at 15:28

5

<?= functionhere(); ?> is a short hand for <?php echo functionhere(); ?>.

answered Mar 31 '11 at 15:28

Femaref

60,705
7
138
176

Naftali · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-31T15:37:32.727

3

what <?=something?> is the short form of doing <?php echo something; ?>

where as <? something; ?> does whatever something was supposed to do

edit: im generalizing something as any php call, function string, array, object etc..

edited Mar 31 '11 at 15:37

answered Mar 31 '11 at 15:28

Naftali

144,921
39
244
303

Your example is more likely to print out a notice, then the string "something"; while the last example does nothing. – mario Mar 31 '11 at 15:33
well if `something` was some function than it would do something hehe – Naftali Mar 31 '11 at 15:34
Sure. But only if called as function() – mario Mar 31 '11 at 15:35

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 31 '11 at 15:29

3

<?php functionhere(); ?> does not print out the results from the function, <?=functionhere(); ?> does.

answered Mar 31 '11 at 15:29

Emil

7,220
17
76
135

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 31 '11 at 15:30

This is a shortcut syntax to echo the variable that comes after it. It has the same effect as

<?php echo $variable; ?>

or

<?php echo functionhere(); ?>

in your case.

<?php functionhere(); ?>

will not do anything. unless something is printed out inside the function

For this to work, short_open_tag has to be enabled

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 31 '11 at 15:30

2

<?= functionhere(); ?> = <?php echo functionhere(); ?>

<? functionhere(); ?> = <?php functionhere(); ?>

They are called short tags and can be enabled via the PHP configuration.

answered Mar 31 '11 at 15:30

Stefan Gehrig

82,642
24
155
189

Chris McClellan · Answer 6 · 2011-03-31T16:06:25.383

0

They do the same thing. Only difference is <?php is proper syntax. One is short tag for echo - but it should not be used because if this function is turned off it will output your code. Thanks for the vote down.

edited Mar 31 '11 at 16:06

answered Mar 31 '11 at 15:28

Chris McClellan

1,123
7
14

5

they don't do the same thing. – Femaref Mar 31 '11 at 15:29
and `` is proper syntax as well – Your Common Sense Mar 31 '11 at 15:40
1

I believe the debate is open on this... Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. – Chris McClellan Mar 31 '11 at 15:44

Whats the difference between and

6 Answers6