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PHP PHP Basics Daily Exercise Program Adding Logic to Your Programs

Posted by casthrademosthene
casthrademosthene
6,274 Points

The statement is always correct, no matter how I change it. HELP

$string_one = 'Learning to display';

if ($string_one = 'Learning to display to the screen.') { echo 'the values matcch '; } else { echo 'the values DO NOT match'; }

RESULTS:
treehouse:~/workspace$ php strings.php
the values matcch treehouse:~/workspace$

2 Answers

Christian Andersson
Christian Andersson
8,712 Points

You forgot the second equal-sign in the evaluation. Change your code from:

if ($string_one = 'Learning to display to the screen.')

to

if ($string_one == 'Learning to display to the screen.')

Wondering why it was always true before? It is because you were assigning $string_one the value of "Learning to display to the screen". The operation of assigning that value to the variable is successful, so that gives a true which enters the if.

casthrademosthene
casthrademosthene
6,274 Points

Thank you so much for explaining that.

Jason Anello
Jason Anello
Courses Plus Student 94,610 Points

Hi Christian,

An assignment expression will evaluate to whatever value is being assigned. In this case it evaluates to the string 'Learning to display to the screen.'

That will then be tested as a boolean which will be true

If on the other hand, the condition was:

if ($string_one = "0")

then that will always be false even though the assignment is successful. The assignment operation will evaluate to the string "0" which will evaluate to false when tested as a boolean.

Christian Andersson
Christian Andersson
8,712 Points

Jason,

You're absolutely right, my explanation was quite generalized, but let's not beat around the bush here - this is mostly a beginners forum and I think the simpler and more memorable explanations are more applicable here, even if they are not always 100% accurate. The complex ones probably belong to communities such as Stackoverflow, unless OP specifically seeks such answer.

casthrademosthene
casthrademosthene
6,274 Points
casthrademosthene
casthrademosthene
6,274 Points

Ya Christian's explanation was easy to understand and as a complete newbie in the industry and php it was the perfect answer for me. So once again thanks Christian and also thanks Jason for the additional output. ????