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WordPress

Carlos Enrique Castañeda Gutiérrez
Carlos Enrique Castañeda Gutiérrez
13,886 Points
Posted by Carlos Enrique Castañeda Gutiérrez
Carlos Enrique Castañeda Gutiérrez
13,886 Points

Why the If statement doesn't use brackets {} ?

Hello:

I've been following the PHP development track before enter to this Wordpress Development Track.

In all previous courses the "if statement" and "while blocks" uses brackets {} not ": endif " or ": endwhile".

Is this a convention in Wordpress Development? Can I use brackets instead or not?

Thanks

1 Answer

Joe Klovance
Joe Klovance
3,275 Points

This falls in the category of coding style. Some people like to use brackets some like to use the ":end..." notation. The advantage to the latter is more towards using PHP conditionals and loops where there is output to HTML. For example,

//Pure PHP with brackets
<?php
if ($condition) {
   echo "output";
}?>

//PHP and HTML with brackets
<?php
if ($condition) {?>
   output
<?php } ?>

//PHP and HTML with ":end..." notation
<?php if ($condition):?>
   output
<?php :endif } ?>

Some people prefer the last as the ":endif" gives a clue what opening construct to look for when matching control structures. The bracket could match any other bracket but an ":endif" can only match and "if" construct. You can use either it is up to your style.