What is the difference between echo and print ?

[mdshare]

Speed

There is a difference between the two, but speed-wise it should be irrelevant which one you use. echo is marginally faster since it doesn't set a return value if you really want to get down to the nitty gritty.

Expression

print() behaves like a function in that you can do: $ret = print "Hello World"; And $ret will be 1.

That means that print can be used as part of a more complex expression where echo cannot.

An example from the PHP Manual:

$b ? print "true" : print "false";

print is also part of the precedence table which it needs to be if it is to be used within a complex expression. It is just about at the bottom of the precedence list though. Only "," AND, OR and XOR are lower.

Parameter(s)

The grammar is: echo expression [, expression[, expression] ... ] But echo ( expression, expression ) is not valid.

This would be valid: echo ("howdy"),("partner"); the same as: echo "howdy","partner"; (Putting the brackets in that simple example

serves no purpose since there is no operator precedence issue with a single term like that.)

So, echo without parentheses can take multiple parameters, which get concatenated:

echo "and a ", 1, 2, 3; // comma-separated without parentheses

echo ("and a 123"); // just one parameter with parentheses

print() can only take one parameter:

print ("and a 123");

print "and a 123";

[Floydian]

Re: What is the difference between echo and print ?

It only takes typing out four characters for echo, and five for print.

Come on now, that makes a difference!! :mrgreen: