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PHP

Posted by michaelwatson
michaelwatson
16,734 Points

Working with Get Variables and PHP tag placement.

I am on the Working with Get Variables lesson, and I understand the how and why of the If, isset, and $_GET statements. What am lost on is the following, 

<p><?php } else { ?></p>

Specifically, I do not understand why the curly brace closes after the php statement, and opens after the else statement.

I have went through and looked watched the video numerous times, but no joy. Thanks in advance.

3 Answers

Riley Hilliard
Riley Hilliard
Courses Plus Student 17,771 Points

I was a little confused when first learning PHP as well, so I know where your coming from here:

<?php if($something == true){ ?>
    <div>This is Raw HTML that will only be rendered if the if statement is TRUE.</div>
    <div>Another HTML content</div>
<?php } else { ?>
    <div>This is Raw HTML that will only be rendered if the if statement is FALSE</div>
    <div>Another HTML element that is different and only appears if the if statement is FALSE</div>
<?php } ?>

<!-- ----------- is the same as ---------- --->

<?php if($something == true){
    echo '<div>This is HTML that will only be printed with PHP if the if statement is TRUE.</div><div>Another HTML content</div>';
 } else { 
    echo '<div>This is HTML that will only be printed with PHP if the if statement is FALSE</div><div>Another HTML element that is different and only appears if the if statement is FALSE</div>';
} ?>

So that format is a little cleaner way to be able to write php and HTML together. It allows you to write html code that is not wrapped in a php echo, which can be a lot easier to deal with when working with larger blocks of HTML code that you want to use a conditional (like an if else statement) to render different content.

Does this help?

Elliott Frazier
PLUS
Elliott Frazier
Courses Plus Student 9,647 Points
Elliott Frazier
Elliott Frazier
Courses Plus Student 9,647 Points

You do that sometimes when writing conditionals that contain a lot of html inside them to escape from using a ton of echo commands Example:

    <?php if($value === "success"){ ?>
      <p>you now need to enter your email:</p>
      <input type="text">
      <p>if you you like to receive email updates please check the box below</p>
      <input type="checkbox">
      ect...
    <?php } >
michaelwatson
michaelwatson
16,734 Points
michaelwatson
michaelwatson
16,734 Points

Riley Hilliard & Elliott Frazier thanks for the explanation. Elliot breaking it up made it clear. Really you are wrapping the } else { command in a <?php ?> so it will know when to do that line of html. Thanks again.