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Print

By Tim-Bo Tolbert, posted on Mar 31, 2024

In PHP the print command construct is used to output just one expression at a time to the client.

An expression can be any value that can be cast to and displayed as a string, for example an expression could be a literal string value, a PHP variable, a functions return value, the result from a math equation, a date or time value, etc.

It is important to understand that the print command is a language construct and is not a function. The argument passed to the print command construct is just one expression, and is not delimited by parentheses.

The PHP print command construct only accepts a single argument, and always returns a value of 1.

The major differences between print and echo command constructs is that echo accepts multiple arguments and does not have a return value, while print only accepts one argument and does have a return value. The echo command construct executes significantly faster than print command construct as well.

Examples

The following examples uses a PHP variable named $employeeCount which contains some numerical value, for example: <?php $employeeCount = 15; ?>

The print command construct can be used without parentheses:

PHP

<!DOCTYPE html>
<?php
    $employeeCount = 15; // TODO: lookup this value from some database
?>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
    <p>There are <?php print $employeeCount; ?> active employees present.</p>
</body>
</html>

The print command construct can be used with parentheses:

PHP

<!DOCTYPE html>
<?php
    $employeeCount = 15; // TODO: lookup this value from some database
?>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
    <p>There are <?php print($employeeCount); ?> active employees present.</p>
</body>
</html>

The following show different ways to use the print command construct:

PHP

<!DOCTYPE html>
<?php
    $employeeCount = 15; // TODO: lookup this value from some database
    $pageTitle = "Hello World!";
?>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
    <?php
      
      print("<h3>" . $pageTitle . "</h3>");
      
      if ($employeeCount <= 0)
      {
          print("<p>The company currently does not have any active employees. Good luck!</p>");
      }
      else
      {
          print("<p>The company currently has " . $employeeCount . " active employees.</p>");
      }
      
      $tempCount = 3; TODO: lookup number of temporary employees, interns, and contractors
      print "<p>The companys total employee count is " . $employeeCount + $tempCount . ".</p>";
      
      print("<p>Lets count to 7:</p>");
      print("<ul>");
      for($i=0; $i<7; $i++)
      {
          print("<li>" . $i + 1 . "</li>");
      }
      print("</ul>");
      
   ?>
</body>
</html>

Output:

Hello World!

The company currently has 15 active employees.

The companys total employee count is 18.

Lets count to 7:

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading, I hope you found this blog post (tutorial) educational and helpful.

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