PHP: variables in strings without concatenation

Question

If I have a variable $var in this string: echo "Hello, there are many $vars";

Php looks for the variable $vars instead of $var.

Without concatenation like: "Hello, there are many $var" . "s";
is there another way to do this, like some sort of escaping character?

Tristan · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-12 07:48:57Z

32

In php you can escape variables like so

echo "Hello, ${var}'s head is big";

or like

echo "Hello, {$var}'s head is big";

Reference here under escape character section

edited Aug 12, 2011 at 7:48

answered Aug 12, 2011 at 7:36

Tristan

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3 Comments

Joubarc Over a year ago

Funny thing, I knew this too, but when I search for a reference in the php documentation, I can't find any. I'm probably searching wrong, so does anyone have it?

Joubarc Over a year ago

And then of course I find it - may be useful for reference: pa2.php.net/manual/en/…

dukevin Over a year ago

@Joubarc same here, I couldn't find it anywhere in documentation. That's why I asked it here

Madara's Ghost · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-12 09:18:06Z

6

You can use {} to escape your variable properly. Consider the following example:

echo "There are many ${var}s"; #Or...
echo "There are many {$var}s";

Working example

edited Aug 12, 2011 at 9:18

answered Aug 12, 2011 at 7:40

Madara's Ghost

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Comments

Pelshoff · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-12 07:41:32Z

2

Alternatively you may want to look at sprintf: http://php.net/manual/en/function.sprintf.php

The sprintf function allows you to format any type of variable as a string in a specific notation.

answered Aug 12, 2011 at 7:41

Pelshoff

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Comments

Kokos · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-12 07:40:08Z

1

Personally I always divide the variables from a string like this: echo 'Hello, there are many '.$var.'s';

Mostly because of readability, if you go through your code it's instantly clear where the variables are.

answered Aug 12, 2011 at 7:40

Kokos

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7 Comments

dukevin Over a year ago

Harder than it sounds if there's 3 sets of escaped quotes and 5 variables in 1 string

Serge Wautier Over a year ago

readability is the exact reason why I prefer the other solution

Madara's Ghost Over a year ago

That actually depends on your IDE/editor. My editor highlights these variables for me, so I always have readable code. Also, using {} to call those variables will give the seam readability effect.

Kokos Over a year ago

Maybe I should look at different editors, because I'd highly prefer doing it with brackets if it showed up in my editor.

Madara's Ghost Over a year ago

It does for me, and no plugins used. See picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/… Make sure you are using double quotes though, single quotes don't evaluate variables.

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