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PHP

Posted by Seth Barthen
Seth Barthen
11,266 Points

Question on Semantics(I think it's semantics...)

Hello All!

As I'm going through the PHP lessons I'm noticing that Randy will open up a php section and insert his variables then close it off. From there he'll open up another php section to write out more code. I'm specifically talking about the video "Introducing Arrays".

Now I know this is very trivial but I want to learn the "why" behind every detail. Why does he have two different php sections?? I just tried it all under one php tag and it worked just the same. Is he doing that just to make it easier to read or something?

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks, Seth

3 Answers

Dustin Matlock
Dustin Matlock
33,856 Points

A pure PHP file does not require the closing of tags. However, closing PHP tags in a file that also contains HTML, shows where PHP starts and stops.

  1. Official Documentation on PHP Tags

  2. Should You Close PHP Tags?

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

It's basically done for human readability. The server processes all of the PHP in the tags, ignores everything not in a PHP tag. It does whatever logic is in the PHP, and sends only the HTML from that file to the browser.

Seth Barthen
Seth Barthen
11,266 Points
Seth Barthen
Seth Barthen
11,266 Points

Thanks for the info guys. Appreciate it! Right after I got done with this I kept going with the PHP course and the next video explained it as well. I guess I'll wait a little longer next time before I ask questions :)