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PHP Build a Simple PHP Application Working With Functions Creating the Shirt Display Function

Posted by Ben Goldman
Ben Goldman
14,626 Points

Concatenation in PHP Foreach Loop

I just have a couple of questions about the following code block from the Build A Simple PHP App lesson. First, I don't understand why each line has to be echoed. Why couldn't you just echo once for the complete code block? Also, why is concatenation used here? I'm confused why you couldn't run the code together instead of concatenating. Thanks!

' ' ' 

<ul class="products">
    <?php foreach($products as $product_id => $product) {
        echo "<li>"; 
        echo '<a href="shirt.php?id=' . $product_id . '">'; 
        echo '<img src="' . $product["img"] . '" alt="' . $product["name"] . '">';
        echo "<p>View Details</p>";
        echo "</a>";
        echo "</li>"; 
    } 
    ?>
</ul>

' ' '

1 Answer

Bryan Knight
Bryan Knight
34,215 Points

Ben,

The multiple echo statements may be for readability purposes only. The concatenation is needed for the variables so that they are not literally echoed out as part of the string inside the quotations. If

$product 
``` was left inside the quotations you would literally see $product instead of the value that the $product variable contains.....if that makes sense.
Ben Goldman
Ben Goldman
14,626 Points

Thanks, Bryan. That makes the concatenation a lot clearer. As for the echo statements, when you say "readability", do you mean so that it's easier for other programmers to read?