Read the manual carefully

Far too many people write code like this:

print "Foo" . somefunc() . " bar " . anotherfunc();

At first glance, that code might make sense. However, the . operator (string concatenation) has to be run three times before print is finally called. So, PHP would execute something like this:

Create a new, temporary string
Put "Foo" in there
Put the result of the somefunc() function in there
Create a new, temporary string
Put the first temporary string in there
Put " bar " in there
Create a new, temporary string
Put the second temporary string in there
Put the result of the anotherfunc() function in there
Send the final temporary string to print, for screen printing

Complicated? A little. Stupid? Certainly. The echo function can take more than one parameter simply by separating them with a comma while still having the same basic functionality. The extra parameters are not joined together in a new string like they are with the concatenation operator, they are just output directly.

So, your code would become:

echo "Foo", dosomething(), " bar ", dosomethingelse();

Using a code cache does help eliminate or at least lessen these coding errors, but that does not mean you should be lazy!

Next chapter: Get your loops right first >>

Previous chapter: Use a PHP code cache

Jump to:

Home: Table of Contents