Is it allways better to output HTML code in a php file with echo? [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Easiest way to echo HTML in PHP?

Hello,

one simple and short question. If you have a php file that contains HTML code, is it better to do the output with echo or to write the HTML code directly into the file? For example the file some.php contains either:

<div>This is a text</div><a href="www.example.com">test</a><?php if(---) { whatever; } ?>

or:

<?php echo "<div>This is a text</div><a href=\"www.example.com\">test</a>"; if(---) { whatever; } ?>

Which version is faster, cleaner and better?

Answer 1

I prefer the first method meaning HTML shouldn't be mixed with PHP as much as possible. With this I don't have to worry about mis-match of quotes, etc. There exists heredocs syntax but yet the first method is something I find easier to work with.

Just choose a way you are more comfortable with and that makes it easier for other programmers to handle you code if they have to :)

Answer 2

In my opinion this really depends on how long the code snippet is. For simple lines I'd just use echo. For longer parts (especially with lots of " to escape) i'd prefer "closing" the php code (your second approach).

Depending on the amount of text/HTML to print I'd also consider using some kind of simple templating engine to load a template file and just fill in dynamic variables/placeholders/gaps.