[SOLVED] When do you use { } Curlies?

[psquillace]

Hello All:

 

I have a newb question here. In learning php I seem to notice that we use the Curly Braces for the IF/ELSE statements but I have seen them used to seperate variables in like

 

   echo "<b>" . $id . ": {$name} </b>";

 

now $name is a variable and I think I understand why it my be like that but in leaning from a book, I am a bit confused as to why the author decided to throw that line together that way?

 

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

 

Paul

[papaface]

echo "<b>" . $id . ": {$name} </b>";

Tells php that there is variable in the quotes and therefore PHP needs to parse the variable.

[wildteen88]

Wrapping variables in curly braces does have it's uses, curly braces are not just for defining code blocks. Curly braces are normally used when echoing a variable which is an array within a string, eg:

echo "$my_arr['some_key'] bla bla bla";

The above code will result in an error, however if you wrapped the variable within braces the code will work fine:

echo "{$my_arr['some_key']} bla bla bla";

[roopurt18]

I use them wherever they are allowed, even when their use is optional.

[Daniel0]

To elaborate on what wildteen said, using the curly braces is also known as complex syntax, not complex because of the syntax itself but because you can make complex expressions.

 

Here is another instance where you'd want to use curly braces around the variable name:

<?php
$fruit = 'banana';
echo "John has two $fruits"; // won't work, PHP will look for a variable called $fruits
echo "John has two {$fruit}s"; // works, PHP will look for a variable called $fruit
?>

 

Like roopurt I generally use curly braces around ALL variables which are inside strings for two reasons:

1) I think it looks nicer.

2) It ensures that it will always work (see wildteen's and my example).

[psquillace]

wow,

 

thanks guys for all your help on this as my last lesson threw me for a loop when I saw that and did not have anything in my notes on it.

 

Thanks again,

 

Paul