Comments on: Tip for Streamlining Your PHP if(statements)

By: Atif

Atif — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:30:00 +0000

personally I prefer the older trick ;)

By: skylark

skylark — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 00:33:00 +0000

Leigh McKay of PHPvideotutorials.com introduces the alt. syntax for use in templating in one of his tutorials. (Personally I prefer it for that use, having trailing curly brackets gives me a headache :D )

By: Tim Sheehan

Tim Sheehan — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:56:03 +0000

PHP short tags have been deprecated. This will no longer work in newer versions of PHP and isn’t considered a best practice :(

By: Tim Sheehan

Tim Sheehan — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:56:00 +0000

PHP short tags have been deprecated. This will no longer work in newer versions of PHP and isn’t considered a best practice :(

By: helium

helium — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:02:20 +0000

MVC? seperate display elements?

Personaly i prefer using full:

if($bla = ‘blah’)
{
//code
}

just for readability and flow ^_^

By: helium

helium — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:02:00 +0000

MVC? seperate display elements?

Personaly i prefer using full:

if($bla = ‘blah’)
{
//code
}

just for readability and flow ^_^

By: Yang

Yang — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:58:52 +0000

This streamlining trick actually sucks. It doesn’t read easier at all but obfuscates the logics in some way. Highly UNrecommended.

By: Yang

Yang — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:58:00 +0000

This streamlining trick actually sucks. It doesn’t read easier at all but obfuscates the logics in some way. Highly UNrecommended.

By: Tip for Streamlining Your PHP if(statements) | Choose Daily

Tip for Streamlining Your PHP if(statements) | Choose Daily — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 11:06:22 +0000

[...] Tip for Streamlining Your PHP if(statements) [...]

By: Jasper

Jasper — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:06:57 +0000

Absolutely! As long as what you write is clear and well-documented, it really doesn’t matter what you use.

Further to your comment, I prefer leaving the modification of variables out of the HTML parts of my code. I’d simply do whatever was needed to the variable to the place that was calling it. I really don’t like to have anything more than if ($blah === false) and foreaches in my HTML but then, as you say, it’s all down to preference. Like most, I’ve certainly taken my style of coding through many iterations before arriving at something I find easy to return to and maintain!

By: Jasper

Jasper — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:06:00 +0000

Absolutely! As long as what you write is clear and well-documented, it really doesn’t matter what you use.

By: Keir Whitaker

Keir Whitaker — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:32:12 +0000

I totally understand that viewpoint. For me having the ability to modify variables easily, output form elements from arrays, have filters and the number of plugins available made Smarty work for me. But yes you are right, it still takes time to learn the syntax and get your head round how it works.

As I think the comments have highlighted it’s really down to personal preference and your own coding style :)

By: Keir Whitaker

Keir Whitaker — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:32:00 +0000

As I think the comments have highlighted it’s really down to personal preference and your own coding style :)

By: Jasper

Jasper — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:57:45 +0000

When embedding in HTML, this is definitely the way to go. Personally, I don’t see the point in using Smarty – it’s no easier to read than PHP when it’s done like this, making it an unnecessary overhead in my mind.

By: Jasper

Jasper — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:57:00 +0000

By: Billy Girlardo

Billy Girlardo — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:15:17 +0000

I like braces because it keeps code compartmentalized.

By: Billy Girlardo

Billy Girlardo — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:15:00 +0000

I like braces because it keeps code compartmentalized.

By: Edmund

Edmund — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:08:01 +0000

I totally agree with Jens Ljungblad. It seems that you’ve never used a decent PHP framework (if any at all). Don’t throw rocks at other people if you don’t even know if they’re really guilty.

And do you seriously think that designers would get confused with this alternative syntax? Personally, I think a designer would get the idea in approximately 5 minutes if he was familiar with PHP.

By: Edmund

Edmund — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:08:00 +0000

I totally agree with Jens Ljungblad. It seems that you’ve never used a decent PHP framework (if any at all). Don’t throw rocks at other people if you don’t even know if they’re really guilty.

And do you seriously think that designers would get confused with this alternative syntax? Personally, I think a designer would get the idea in approximately 5 minutes if he was familiar with PHP.

By: Jack Sleight

Jack Sleight — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:07:30 +0000

I think it’s more of a personal preference than one being more streamlined and “easier to read” than the other. I personally prefer to use one style (curly braces) consistently throughout all code (templates. scripts, classes etc.).

By: Jack Sleight

Jack Sleight — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:07:00 +0000

By: Edmund

Edmund — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:56:47 +0000

I picked this style from CodeIgniter, a PHP framework. It’s a real pleasure to write PHP code and combine it with HTML in view files. If you align code blocks correctly, it actually improves readability and you don’t need to mess with those curly brackets anymore (as far as output/view files are concerned, of course).

By: Edmund

Edmund — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:56:00 +0000

By: Cristiano Rastelli

Cristiano Rastelli — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:09:51 +0000

An even shorter sintax (to be enabled in the php.ini file) is called “short tags” which makes code even more readeable:

// Output

and using ternary operators you can do:

instead of using the old-style “echo” command.

By: Cristiano Rastelli

Cristiano Rastelli — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:09:00 +0000

An even shorter sintax (to be enabled in the php.ini file) is called “short tags” which makes code even more readeable:

// Output

and using ternary operators you can do:

instead of using the old-style “echo” command.

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:57:06 +0000

It’s been used in Drupal templates for years too. I’ve never really seen the point of using this alternative control structure but reading this post has highlighted the fact that it is slightly clearer in this particular case, ie. mixing PHP and HTML.

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:57:00 +0000

By: bogphanny

bogphanny — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:56:34 +0000

it is worth noting that using the colon syntax for Else-If blocks requires “elseif”, rather than “else if” (which otherwise works if you use the curly brace syntax)

By: bogphanny

bogphanny — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:56:00 +0000

it is worth noting that using the colon syntax for Else-If blocks requires “elseif”, rather than “else if” (which otherwise works if you use the curly brace syntax)

By: Jens Ljungblad

Jens Ljungblad — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:20:21 +0000

For your information, Zend Framework, Symfony, CakePhp, Codeigniter, ALL the major Php frameworks advocate and promote the alternative syntax for view templates. Your statement doesn’t make any sense, and pretty much makes you look like you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years. Languages evolve. Get with the times.