php echo vs open&close tag

Question

Just to clarify: The issues "echo vs print" and "double quotes vs single quotes" are perfectly understood, this is about another thing:

Are there any reasons why one would prefer:

echo '<table>';   
foreach($lotsofrows as $row)
{
    echo '<tr><td>',$row['id'],'</td></tr>';   
}
echo '<table>';

over:

<table><?php
       foreach($lotsofrows as $row)
       { ?>
           <tr>
              <td><?php echo $row['id']; ?></td>
           </tr><?php
       } ?>
</table>

would either one execute/parse faster? is more elegant? (etc.)

I tend to use the second option, but I'm worried I might be overlooking something obvious/essential.

Answer 1

Benefits of first one

• Easier to read
• ???

Benefits of second one

• WYSIWYG is possible
• HTML Code Completion/Tag-Matching possible with some IDEs
• No escaping headaches
• Easier for larger chunks of HTML

If I have a lot of HTML in a given PHP routine (like an MVC view) then I definitely use the 2nd method. But I format it differently - I strictly rely on the tag-like nature of PHP's demarcations, i.e., I make the PHP sections look as much like HTML tags as I can

<table>
  <?php foreach($lotsofrows as $row) { ?>
  <tr>
    <td><?php echo $row['id']; ?></td>
  </tr>
  <?php } ?>
</table>

Answer 2

I agree with Peter Bailey. However, in views I use the alternative syntax for statements, and much prefer short tags (particularly for echoing). So the above example would instead read:

 <table> 
  <? foreach($lotsofrows as $row): ?>
  <tr>
    <td><?= $row['id']; ?></td>
  </tr>
  <? endforeach; ?>
 </table>

I believe this is the preferred standard for Zend Framework.