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Rui Bi
29,853 PointsWhy is the use of short echo tags omitted from all PHP courses?
One thing I noticed in all PHP and PHP-related (ie Wordpress) lessons, the use of short echo tags are completely omitted, without even a mention.
In all examples, the use of the echo statement, in conjunction with the traditional php script tags are used, such as in:
<?php echo $var ?>
Using short echo tags, it is possible to rewrite the above as:
<?= $var ?>
Which can make the code a little shorter and neater.
1 Answer
miguelcastro2
Courses Plus Student 6,573 PointsBecause not all web servers setup with PHP support the short tags. PHP 5.4 and greater does support short tags on default, but there are still many servers setup that may not support short tags. So in order to make sure your PHP code is portable, many examples use "echo" to ensure portability.
Jeff Busch
19,287 PointsIn fact, I,m running PHP 5.6 on my Debian computer and short tags are off by default.
miguelcastro2
Courses Plus Student 6,573 PointsAccording to the PHP documentation:
This directive also affected the shorthand <?= before PHP 5.4.0, which is identical to <? echo. Use of this shortcut required short_open_tag to be on. Since PHP 5.4.0, <?= is always available.
So perhaps while the feature is not explicitly set, the feature will work regardless on versions 5.4+.
Rui Bi
29,853 PointsRui Bi
29,853 PointsYes, previously you had to have short tags enabled in your server settings, but as long as you are running PHP 5.4 or newer, <?= ?> is enabled even if <? ?> is not.