Mixed-mode processing

A key concept in PHP is that you can toggle PHP parsing mode whenever you want and as often as you want, and you can even do it inside a code block. Here is a basic PHP script:

<?php

      if ($foo == $bar) {

          print "Lots of stuff here";

          print "Lots of stuff here";

          print "Lots of stuff here";

          ...[snip]...

          print "Lots of stuff here";

          print "Lots of stuff here";

      }
 ?>

As you can see, there are a lot of print statements that will only be executed if the variable $foo is the same as variable $bar. All the output is encapsulated into print statements, but PHP allows you to exit the PHP code island while still keeping the if statement code block open - here's how that looks.

<?php

      if ($foo == $bar) {
 ?>
     Lots of stuff here

      Lots of stuff here

      Lots of stuff here

      ...[snip]...

      Lots of stuff here

      Lots of stuff here

  <?php

      }
 ?>

The "Lots of stuff here" lines are still only sent to output if $foo is equal to $bar, but we exit PHP mode to print it out. We then re-enter PHP mode to close the if statement, and continue - it makes the whole script easier to read.

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