phpshorthand

Overview of PHP shorthand


I've been programming in PHP for years now, but I've never learned how to use any shorthand. I come across it from time to time in code and have a hard time reading it, so I'd like to learn the different shorthand that exists for the language so that I can read it and start saving time/lines by using it, but I can't seem to find a comprehensive overview of all of the shorthand.

A Google search pretty much exclusively shows the shorthand for if/else statements, but I know there must be more than just that.

By shorthand, I am talking about stuff like:

($var) ? true : false;

Solution

  • Here are some of the shorthand operators used in PHP.

    //If $y > 10, $x will say 'foo', else it'll say 'bar'
    $x = ($y > 10) ? 'foo' : 'bar';
    
    //Short way of saying <? print $foo;?>, useful in HTML templates
    <?=$foo?>
    
    //Shorthand way of doing the for loop, useful in html templates
    for ($x=1; $x < 100; $x++):
       //Do something
    end for;
    
    //Shorthand way of the foreach loop
    foreach ($array as $key=>$value):
       //Do something;
    endforeach;
    
    //Another way of If/else:
    if ($x > 10):
        doX();
        doY();
        doZ();
    else:
        doA();
        doB();
    endif;
    
    //You can also do an if statement without any brackets or colons if you only need to
    //execute one statement after your if:
    
    if ($x = 100)
       doX();
    $x = 1000;
    
    // PHP 5.4 introduced an array shorthand
    
    $a = [1, 2, 3, 4];
    $b = ['one' => 1, 'two' => 2, 'three' => 3, 'four' => 4];