Help me Understand

[monkeytooth]

Often when I get stuck on a concept I go looking for answers but today I finally noticed a trend, one of which I don't practice often it seems, or one that I go about in different ways I guess you could say sometimes.

 

Anwyay what I notice is some people code and they will have multiple breaks in the code

<?php some php code if($random){ ?>
some html/or not
<?php } else { ?>
some more html/or not
<?php } ?>

 

then ill see a concept one of which I do more it seems

<?php
if($random){
//building my vars and having it deside what the output is
}else{
//well my logic was off it didnt work right use default values
}
?>
HTML stuff/or not

 

I guess what I am curious about is why some people code one way or another and what between the two if one is more so than the other the best way to code in PHP

[havenpets]

I use both depending on the situations. When retrieving data from my database, and I am inserting them into a table, I simply use the breaks. However, if I am coding something other than that, I continue with an "echo".

[MatthewJ]

I tend to open and close php blocks so I can still see the html represented in Dreamweaver instead of just seeing php badges in it's place. Plus lots of concatenation can get tricky to read at times.

[ignace]

I mostly use the first example in my views.

[cweathers]

I'm not aware of a functionality difference.

 

Seems like it's all about aesthetics, preference,  and/or how you were taught. 

 

I prefer the second method.

[monkeytooth]

Ok thats what I wasn't sure about, if it was just preference of some form of optimization or what. But from what im reading and understanding from it, it is like you say a matter of preference and that way you learned or were taught.