Add new string to variable

Question

What i need to do is this

if (isset($message))
{
    $message = $message . $new_message;
}
else
{
    $message = $new_message;
}

Is there a simple way to do this with no if ?

I tried

$message .= $new_message;

But when $message is not set, i get Severity Notice Undefined property

The reason i need to do this is i show errors/messages with $message in views and if i simply do $message = $new_message; older errors/messages are gone.

Any help/method is appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use ternary operator:

$message = isset($message) ? $message.$new_message : $new_message;