Is there a better way to write HTML strings in PHP?

Question

I find myself writing a lot of functions in PHP that return HTML code. They may look something like this:

function html_site_head() {     return         "             <div id=\"site_header\">                 <div id=\"site_header_inner\">                     <div id=\"site_header_logo\"></div>                      <div id=\"site_header_countdown\">BARE XX DAGER IGJEN</div>                 </div>             </div>         "; } 

Now I can swear I've seen better ways to write long strings in PHP. I like python's way of doing it:

return """     <div id="site_header">         <div id="site_header_inner">             <div id="site_header_logo"></div>              <div id="site_header_countdown">BARE XX DAGER IGJEN</div>         </div>     </div> """ 

As you don't have to escape quotation marks. An alternative is using single quotation marks, but that means no using PHP variables directly in the string. I swear I've seen something like this in PHP:

return <<<     <div id="site_header">         <div id="site_header_inner">             <div id="site_header_logo"></div>              <div id="site_header_countdown">BARE XX DAGER IGJEN</div>         </div>     </div> 

Or something similar. Could someone refresh my memory on this?

Thanks

Answer 1

PHP knows several kinds of syntax to declare a string:

• single quoted

  ' … ' 

• double quoted

  " … " 

• heredoc syntax

  <<<DELIMITER  … DELIMITER 

• nowdoc syntax (since PHP 5.3.0)

  <<<'DELIMITER'  … DELIMITER 

So you don’t have to use the double quotes per se.