Echo

[slpctrl]

I was browsing through some PHP, and stumbled upon a code that used echo strangely. I was wondering if anyone could clear up how this works:

 

<?php

//..code

echo <<<HERE

<b><h3><center>Chislam's Chat Box</center></h3></b>

<iframe src="chat.txt" width="700" height="250"></iframe>

<form method="post" name="form">Nickname: <input type="text' name="nickname" value="$nickname"><br>

Message:   <input type="text" name="message"><input type="submit" value="Submit">

</form>

<a href="chat.php">Refresh</a>

HERE;

 

if ($_POST['nickname'] && $_POST['message']){

    $fp = fopen("chat.txt", "a");

    $stuff = $nickname . ": " . $message . "\n";

    fputs($fp, $stuff);

} else {

    echo "Please enter nickname and message.";

}

 

?>

 

The echo <<<HERE I found peculiar. How does this work?

[dezkit]

What the... that is weird.

[helraizer]

It's known as HEREDOC and it is generally used for long strings with both single and double quotes and variables.

 

It means you don't need to escape anything so no \' \" or anything.

 

I use it for long amounts of text with particular formats, like emails etc...

 

Hope that helps?

 

Sam

[slpctrl]

It's known as HEREDOC and it is generally used for long strings with both single and double quotes and variables.

 

It means you don't need to escape anything so no \' \" or anything.

 

I use it for long amounts of text with particular formats, like emails etc...

 

Hope that helps?

 

Sam

 

Makes perfect sense to me. This could come in handy  Can it be used for other things like storing variables with quotes? How would I go about storing a variable with quotes?

[helraizer]

If I've understood what you meant, you could use it like

 

$myvar = "variables";

$var = <<<MYVARIABLE
This is my variable containing 'single' quotes and "double" quotes.
It also parses other $myvar

I can have any characters in this variable, then to end it like this!

MYVARIABLE;

echo $var;

 

It can be used like that.

 

Sam