(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 ($a == 6):
echo "a equals 6";
echo "!!!";
else:
echo "a is neither 5 nor 6";
endif;
?>
Note: Mixing syntaxes in the same control block is not supported.
Warning Any output (including whitespace) between a switch statement
and the first case will result in a syntax error. For example, this is invalid:
<?php switch ($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 ($foo): ?>
<?php case 1: ?>
...
<?php endswitch ?>
See also while, for, and if for further examples. toxyy ¶ 4 months ago
I feel compelled to give a more elegant way using heredoc than the other comment:
<ul>
<?php foreach($list as $item): echo
<<<ITEM
<li id="itm-$item[number]">Item $item[name]</li>
ITEM;
endforeach; ?>
</ul>
Which works better with multi line blocks, as you only need one overall php tag.
(please don't omit the closing </li> tag despite it being legal, personal preference)
johannes dot kingma at gmail dot com ¶ 9 months ago
The alternative control syntax can be combined elegantly with the short php notation <?- => for output where both blend in into the html code
<ul>
<?php for($counter=0; $counter<10; $counter++) :?>
<li id="itm-<?=$counter?>">Item <?=$counter?>
<?php endfor;?>
</ul>
(Btw. ommiting the </li> is perfectly legal)
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