use of heredoc strings

[portia]

I'm a newbie reading php documentations. I have a hard time grasping the idea/use of heredoc strings. That's an example from the php website

 

$str = <<<EOD
Example of string
spanning multiple lines
using heredoc syntax.
EOD;

 

I understand it is useful when you have multiline string variables. Is that it? Is this the only advantage of heredoc strings or there's more to it?

 

thanks

[AyKay47]

on of the main reasons for using the HEREDOC syntax is it eliminates the need to escape special characters inside of it, and allows for neater strings

[portia]

Thanks for your reply!

[xyph]

Keep in mind HEREDOC strings are parsed (like a double quoted string). If you don't need/want them parsed, use a NOWDOC.

 

echo <<<HEREDOC
\x41
HEREDOC;
// Outputs 'A'

echo '<br>';

echo <<<'NOWDOC'
\x41
NOWDOC;
// Outputs '\x41'

[Pikachu2000]

It's important to note that NOWDOC syntax isn't available before PHP v5.3.0, however.

[portia]

Thanks guys, I'm aware of that difference between heredoc and nowdoc. Just wasn't sure about the general idea of it.