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?
![Designing for Simplicity]()
Before we get started, it's worth me spending a brief moment introducing myself to you. My name is Mark (or @integralist if Twitter happens to be your communication tool of choice) and I currently work for BBC News in London England as a principal engineer/tech...
![Chris Coyier’s Favorite CodePen Demos]()
David asked me if I'd be up for a guest post picking out some of my favorite Pens from CodePen. A daunting task! There are so many! I managed to pick a few though that have blown me away over the past few months. If you...
![Using MooTools For Opacity]()
Although it's possible to achieve opacity using CSS, the hacks involved aren't pretty. If you're using the MooTools JavaScript library, opacity is as easy as using an element's "set" method. The following MooTools snippet takes every image with the "opacity" class and sets...
![Create a Sheen Logo Effect with CSS]()
I was inspired when I first saw Addy Osmani's original ShineTime blog post. The hover sheen effect is simple but awesome. When I started my blog redesign, I really wanted to use a sheen effect with my logo. Using two HTML elements and...
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;