Heredoc and nowdoc provide useful alternatives to defining strings in PHP to the more widely used quoted string syntax. They are especially useful when we need to define a string that spans multiple lines (new lines are also interpreted when used in quoted strings) and where use of whitespace is important.
Heredoc is one of the ways to store or print a block of text in PHP. The data stored in the heredoc variable is more readable and error-free than other variables for using indentation and newline.
Nowdocs are to single-quoted strings what heredocs are to double-quoted strings. A nowdoc is specified similarly to a heredoc, but no parsing is done inside a nowdoc. The construct is ideal for embedding PHP code or other large blocks of text without the need for escaping.
http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.syntax.nowdoc
In other words:
$foo = 'bar';
$here = <<<HERE
I'm here, $foo !
HERE;
$now = <<<'NOW'
I'm now, $foo !
NOW;
$here
is "I'm here, bar !", while $now
is "I'm now, $foo !".
If you don't need variable interpolation but need special characters like $
inside your string, Nowdocs are easier to use. That's all.
heredocs
1. heredocs text behaves just like a double-quoted string, without the double quotes.
2. Quotes in a heredoc do not need to be escaped, but the escape codes \n linefeed,
\r carriage return,
\t horizontal tab, \v vertical tab, \e escape, \f form feed, \ backslash,\$ dollar sign,\" double-quote can still be used. Variables are expanded, but the same care must be taken when expressing complex variables inside a heredoc as with strings.
Example :
$myname='Tikku';
$heredoc_exmaple= <<<HEREDOC
\\n ,\\r ,\t ,\r ,\\v ,\\e ,\f ,\\ , \ ,$89 ,$ , $myname , ' , \$myname , \" ,\'
HEREDOC;
echo $heredoc_exmaple;
//OUTPUT \n ,\r , , ,\v ,\e , ,\ , \ ,$89 ,$ , Tikku , ' , $myname , \" ,\'
nowdocs
1. nowdocs text behaves just like a single-quoted string, without the single quotes.
2. Quotes in a nowdocs do not need to be escaped.Variables are not expanded in it.Advantage of nowdocs is embedding PHP code and escape codes without the need for escaping.
Example :
$myname='Tikku';
$nowdoc_exmaple= <<<'NOWDOC'
\\n ,\\r ,\t ,\r ,\\v ,\\e ,\f ,\\ , \ ,$89 ,$ , $myname , ' , \$myname , \" ,\'
NOWDOC;
echo $nowdoc_exmaple;
//OUTPUT \\n ,\\r ,\t ,\r ,\\v ,\\e ,\f ,\\ , \ ,$89 ,$ , $myname , ' , \$myname , \" ,\'
Syntax: A nowdoc is identified with the same <<< sequence used for heredocs, but the identifier which follows is enclosed in single quotes, e.g. <<<'NOWDOC'. All the rules for heredoc identifiers also apply to nowdoc identifiers, especially those regarding the appearance of the closing identifier.
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