should I put a semi-colon after a single PHP statement?

Question

e.g.

some html....
<p class="date"><?php echo $date; ?></p>
more html...

?

Answer 1

It might be better to always use a semi-colon :

• Lowers the probability of errors if you need to extend your code in the specific section.
• Improves readability of code

Answer 2

I find that not doing so can:

1. Break syntax highlighting in some editors / IDE (not critical, but annoying)
2. Make code harder to maintain.

So yes, I recommend doing so, unless you are sure short tags are fine for the server config in which case its not really relevant.

When editing other people's stuff, I try to just follow the same style.