'END' keyword in switch case?

Question

so I'm looking at another person's code trying to fix it, and I'm not sure what is happening. I have a pretty strong knowledge of programming in general, but there is one line that is throwing me off. See below:

<?php
switch ($task) {
    case "createDJ":
          echo <<<END;
          <h5>Create DJ Form</h5>
          <!-- Code for DJ form goes here. -->
          END;
          break;
    case "createShow":
         echo <<<END;
         <h5>Create Show Form</h5>
         <!-- Code for Show form goes here. -->
         END;
         break;
   //...
?>

What is going on with these END statements? I've never seen them before, Also, what is up with the <<< sign?

EDIT: Sorry about the syntax highlighting, not sure why it's all messy.

EDIT: And now I understand why the syntax highlighting is messed up! haha

possible duplicate of [What is the name for the "<<<" operator?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6062830/what-is-the-name-for-the-operator) — Jon, Sep 17 '11 at 20:44
you are sure, that you formatted it right? `END;` is the end of the heredoc-statement started with `<< — KingCrunch, Sep 17 '11 at 20:44
yeah, it's someone else's code and I'm trying to figure out why it doesn't work. Thank you though for the insight. :) — theangryhornet, Sep 17 '11 at 20:49

Jeremy · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-17T20:55:29.207

It's not a statement, it's a way of quoting a string.

It's called called heredoc syntax, and it's supposed to be a convenient way to quote a multi-line string. <<<END starts it and END at the beginning of a line ends it. (END is the programmer's choice, they can use an identifier they want.)

This is explained here in the PHP documentation:

A third way to delimit strings is the heredoc syntax: <<<. After this operator, an identifier is provided, then a newline. The string itself follows, and then the same identifier again to close the quotation.

The closing identifier must begin in the first column of the line. Also, the identifier must follow the same naming rules as any other label in PHP: it must contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores, and must start with a non-digit character or underscore.

Relevant documentation: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.syntax.heredoc. — rovaughn, Sep 17 '11 at 20:45
Worth to note: It's called "heredoc". You can create multiline-strings with _any_ string-syntax — KingCrunch, Sep 17 '11 at 20:45

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 17 '11 at 20:44

1

It's the heredoc syntax for strings, available in a couple of languages.

<<<HERE
string text here
HERE

answered Sep 17 '11 at 20:44

Karoly Horvath

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'END' keyword in switch case?

2 Answers2