Properly Formatting HTML Inside PHP Functions

Question

I have code like such:

function myFunction(){
    $types = getTypes();

    for ($i = 0; $i < count($types); $i++) {
        $projects = getProjects($types[i]);
        echo "<div class='block'>";
        for ($a = 0; $a < count($projects); $a++) {  
            echo "
                <p>
                    <a href='{$projects[$a]["link"]}'>{$projects[$a]["title"]}</a>
                    {$projects[$a]["description"]}

                </p>
            ";
        }
        echo " </div> ";
    }
}

And then in an html file:

<section>
    <?php myFunction(); ?>
</section>

Unless I set custom settings, beautifiers mess with the string formatting, I can't use double quotes, and all my html gets coloured the same way in any IDE. This had let me to believe this is not the way html is intended to be put in php scripts. What is the proper way of doing this?

This depends upon which IDE you're using IDE plugin for PHP can help you to recognize your language. And this is the correct way, alternatively you can return something from function and then parse it inside html but this will be the same thing apparently. — Abhishek
– Abhishek, Commented Dec 8, 2018 at 18:42
@vivek_23 can you elaborate on the template comment? How would I go about doing this? — Josh
– Josh, Commented Dec 8, 2018 at 18:44
@Jersh You can use the Smarty template. It's a better way to represent html with using PHP variables and interpolation {}. — mighty_dev
– mighty_dev, Commented Dec 8, 2018 at 18:51

Djanym · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-08 19:05:09Z

2

There are many ways to write the code. For example, you can make it like:

$projects = getProjects($types[i]);
?>
<div class="block">
<?php for ($a = 0; $a < count($projects); $a++) : ?>  
    <p>
        <a href="<?php echo $projects[$a]['link'];?>"><?php echo $projects[$a]['title']; ?></a>
        <?php echo $projects[$a]['description']; ?>
    </p>
<?php endfor; ?>
</div>
<?php

edited Dec 8, 2018 at 19:05

answered Dec 8, 2018 at 18:49

Djanym

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3 Comments

Josh Over a year ago

Right, but would this work nested in a for loop or function?

Lawrence Johnson Over a year ago

Yes, it would work. Althought there is a typo: endofr should be endfor

Djanym Over a year ago

@Jersh yes it would work nested. Either you can insert the whole code in the html template.

DinoCoderSaurus · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-08 18:48:01Z

1

I don't know if this is the "proper way", or even a good way, but it works for me. I use sprintf to create html. It compartmentalizes the quoting (at least in my brain). Something like this:

$f1 = ' <a href="%s">%s</a>%s';
echo "<p>",
    sprintf($f1,"link","title","description"),
    "</p>";

answered Dec 8, 2018 at 18:48

DinoCoderSaurus

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