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PHP PHP Basics (Retired) PHP Datatypes Strings

Derek Dawes
Derek Dawes
4,944 Points
Posted by Derek Dawes
Derek Dawes
4,944 Points

<pre> before <?php? Whats the purpose?

I understand the purpose of <pre> </pre> in html to display text. But whats the purpose of using it before php code?

I.e.

<pre>
<?php
$one = 1;
$two = 2;
echo $two;
?>
</pre> etc. etc. ....

Thanks

3 Answers

Jacobus Hindson
Jacobus Hindson
14,429 Points
Jacobus Hindson
Jacobus Hindson
14,429 Points

Derek,

The tag literally is HTML at that point because it is called before the php code. As your php code uses echo it will display the results. So the <pre> tag will use Pre-formatted HTML to display them.

Gloria Dwomoh
Gloria Dwomoh
13,116 Points
Gloria Dwomoh
Gloria Dwomoh
13,116 Points

In simple words i'll say it helps keep the original format of the text you are trying to display. Which means keeping the white spaces, line breaks etc. It is an HTML tag as Jacobus Hindson stated earlier. You can see an example of how it works here - html - <pre> preformatting

thomascawthorn
thomascawthorn
22,986 Points
thomascawthorn
thomascawthorn
22,986 Points

Try it with... Then try it without. Which one is easier to read? :-)