PHP and Echo
As any beginner PHP could tell you, the echo function outputs data to the screen (or command line depending on how you're using PHP). Some, however, may not know that PHP's "echo()" isn't really a function at all. From PHP.net:
"echo() is not actually a function (it is a language construct), so you are not required to use parentheses with it. echo() (unlike some other language constructs) does not behave like a function, so it cannot always be used in the context of a function. Additionally, if you want to pass more than one parameter to echo(), the parameters must not be enclosed within parentheses."
So, instead of traditionally coding this...
echo("The MD5 of $text is: ".md5($text)."!");
...you can actually do this...
echo "The MD5 of $text is: ",md5($text),'!';
In fact, separating strings with commas is faster than concatenation! With a name like echo, it should be a bit crazy, right?
![Responsive and Infinitely Scalable JS Animations]()
Back in late 2012 it was not easy to find open source projects using requestAnimationFrame() - this is the hook that allows Javascript code to synchronize with a web browser's native paint loop. Animations using this method can run at 60 fps and deliver fantastic...
![CSS Animations Between Media Queries]()
CSS animations are right up there with sliced bread. CSS animations are efficient because they can be hardware accelerated, they require no JavaScript overhead, and they are composed of very little CSS code. Quite often we add CSS transforms to elements via CSS during...
![Multiple Backgrounds with CSS]()
Anyone that's been in the web development industry for 5+ years knows that there are certain features that we should have had several years ago. One of those features is the HTML5 placeholder; we used JavaScript shims for a decade before placeholder came...
![Digg-Style Dynamic Share Widget Using the Dojo Toolkit]()
I've always seen Digg as a very progressive website. Digg uses experimental, ajaxified methods for comments and mission-critical functions. One nice touch Digg has added to their website is their hover share widget. Here's how to implement that functionality on your site...
Whoa the comma thing is a mindfreak. That saves some concatenated html output hell.
“In fact, separating strings with commas is faster than concatenation!”
I’m not sure what you mean by this? How is it faster?
I don’t think I have ever used parentheses with the echo. It’s weird to me to see it done like that.
@deef: It’s faster because PHP doesn’t need to continuously concatenate string upon string — commas allow for “Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!” instead of “……….BOOM!”.
@mark: I was high-horse about it for a while. To me it was a function so “echo()” was “best form.” Foolish, I was.
I ran a quick test to see if I would notice some speed differences using the commas, noticed about 10% output speed increase in the test script. Funny… didn’t kow about it. Thank you!
Well, I always use echo; I didn’t actually know you could do echo(), but no matter. Not a function? Strange.
I read about the comma versus dot thing on an optimization post. According to this guy’s tests is was nowhere near 10%, but commas were still faster nonetheless.
http://making-the-web.com/2007/08/24/tips-for-faster-php-scripts/
I always hated the concatenation! but didnt know that commas do it faster.
Thanks
Find an interesting PHP-Benchmark.
Somewhere down the page, there is also an echo-Benchmark.
Seems like commas are not allways faster.
http://www.phpbench.com/
Find => Found
allways => always
It was to early in the morning, sorry! :-)
http://www.phpbench.com/
The author only compares echo with commas/periods using either all string or all variable. I’d be interested in seeing a comparison using some combination of both variables and commas.. something like
$a = ‘bbbbbb’;
echo ‘aaaaaa’,$b,’aaaaaa’,$b;
vs
echo ‘aaaaaa’.$b.’aaaaaa’.$b;