PHP - Echo

1. As you saw in the previous lesson, the PHP function echo
2. is a means of outputting text to the web
3. browser. Throughout your
4. PHP career you will be using the echo function more than any other.
5. So
6. let's give it a solid perusal!
7. Outputting a String
   
8. To output a string, like we have done in previous lessons, use
9.  the PHP echo function. You can
10. place either a string variable or you
11.  can use quotes, like we do below, to create a string that the echo
12. function
13.  will output.
14. PHP Code:
16. Code:
17. <?php
18. $myString = "Hello!";
19. echo $myString;
20. echo "<h5>I love using PHP!</h5>";
21. ?>
23. Display
24. :
25. In the above example we output "Hello!" without a hitch. The text we are
26. outputting is being sent
27. to the user in the form of a web page, so it is important that we use proper
28. HTML syntax!
29. In our second echo statement we use echo to write a valid Header 5 HTML statement.
30. To do this
31. we simply put the <h5> at the beginning of the string and closed it at the end of the
32. string. Just
33. because you're using PHP to make web pages does not mean you can forget
34. about HTML syntax!
35. Careful When Echoing Quotes!
36. It is pretty cool that you can output HTML with PHP. However, you must be careful when
37. using HTML code or
38. any other string that includes quotes! The echo function uses
39. quotes to define
40. the beginning and end of the string, so you must use one of the following
41. tactics if your string contains
42. quotations:
43. .:. Don't use quotes inside your string
44. .:. Escape your quotes that are within the string with a backslash. To escape a quote
45. just place a
46. backslash directly before the quotation mark, i.e. \"
47. .:. Use single quotes (apostrophes) for quotes inside your string.
48. See our example below for the right and wrong use of the echo
49. function:
51. PHP Code:
53. Code:
54. <?php
55. // This won't work because of the quotes around specialH5!
56. echo "<h5 class="specialH5">I love using PHP!</h5>";
57. // OK because we escaped the quotes!
58. echo "<h5 class=\"specialH5\">I love using PHP!</h5>";
59. // OK because we used an apostrophe '
60. echo "<h5 class='specialH5'>I love using PHP!</h5>";
61. ?>
63. If you want to output a string that includes quotations, either use an apostrophe ( ' ) or escape
64. the
65. quotations by placing a backslash in front of it ( \" ). The backslash will tell PHP that you want the
66. quotation
67. to be used within the string and NOT to be used to end echo's string.
68. Echoing Variables
69. Echoing variables is very easy. The PHP developers put in some extra work
70. to make the common
71. task of echoing all variables nearly foolproof! No quotations are
72. required, even if the variable does
73. not hold a string. Below is the correct
74. format for echoing a variable.
75. PHP Code:
77. Code:
78. <?php
79. $my_string = "Hello Bob. My name is: ";
80. $my_number = 4;
81. $my_letter = a;
82. echo $my_string;
83. echo $my_number;
84. echo $my_letter;
85. ?>
87. Display:
88. Hello Bob. My name is: 4a
89. Echoing Variables and Text Strings
90. You can also combine text strings and variables. By doing such
91. a conjunction you save yourself
92. from having to do a large number of echo
93. statements. Variables and text strings are joined together
94. with a period( . ). The example
95. below shows how to do such a combination.
97. PHP Code:
99. Code:
100. <?php
101. $my_string = "Hello Bob. My name is: ";
102. $newline = "<br />";
103. echo $my_string."Bobettta".$newline;
104. echo "Hi, I'm Bob. Who are you? ".$my_string.$newline;
105. echo "Hi, I'm Bob. Who are you? ".$my_string."Bobetta";
106. ?>
108. Display:
109. Hello Bob. My name is: Bobetta
110. Hi, I'm Bob. Who are you? Hello Bob. My name is:
111. Hi, I'm Bob. Who are you? Hello Bob. My name is: Bobetta
112. This combination
113. can be done multiple times, as the example shows. This method of joining
114. two or
115. more strings together is called concatenation and we will talk more about this
116. and other forms of
117. string manipulation in our string lesson.