Alternative syntax for control structures
(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
PHP offers an alternative syntax for some of its control
structures; namely, if,
while, for,
foreach, and switch.
In each case, the basic form of the alternate syntax is to change
the opening brace to a colon (:) and the closing brace to
endif;, endwhile;,
endfor;, endforeach;, or
endswitch;, respectively.
<?php if ($a == 5): ?>
A is equal to 5
<?php endif; ?>
In the above example, the HTML block "A is equal to 5" is nested within an
if statement written in the alternative syntax. The
HTML block would be displayed only if $a is equal to 5.
The alternative syntax applies to else and
elseif as well. The following is an
if structure with elseif and
else in the alternative format:
<?php
if ($a == 5):
echo "a equals 5";
echo "...";
elseif ($a == 6):
echo "a equals 6";
echo "!!!";
else:
echo "a is neither 5 nor 6";
endif;
?>
Note:
Mixing syntaxes in the same control block is not supported.
Any output (including whitespace) between a switch
statement and the first case will result in a syntax
error. For example, this is invalid:
<?php switch ($foo): ?>
<?php case 1: ?>
...
<?php endswitch ?>
Whereas this is valid, as the trailing newline after the
switch statement is considered part of the closing
?> and hence nothing is output between the
switch and case:
<?php switch ($foo): ?>
<?php case 1: ?>
...
<?php endswitch ?>
