Not Understanding the Meaning of Expand in PHP Strings Single vs. Double Quotes

Question

I just finished watching: https://teamtreehouse.com/library/strings and Alena said that the difference between single vs. double quotes in a string is one expands the string and the other does not.  However, she never explained what expanding in this case means.  
My only guess is that it appears that single quotes around strings will keep the variable name if you put a variable in your string whereas double quotes will reveal the assignment of that variable (so instead of Hello $name it'll be Hello Xenomorph).  
However, I'm still not seeing how exactly the word expand relates to this...  Thanks for your help!

James Anwyl · Accepted Answer

I assume she means the variable will be evaluated. As you said, when using double quotes, whatever is assigned to the variable will be displayed in place of the variable name.  
For example: 
```PHP
<?php $name = "Dave";
echo 'His name is $name';
// outputs: His name is $name
echo "His name is $name";
// outputs: His name is Dave
?>
```
A good explanation:
what is the difference between single quoted and double quoted strings in php (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3446216/what-is-the-difference-between-single-quoted-and-double-quoted-strings-in-php)
Hope this helps :)

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Not Understanding the Meaning of Expand in PHP Strings Single vs. Double Quotes

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James Anwyl

James Anwyl

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DavidPaul sullivan

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