ConFoo 2025

Alternative syntax for control structures

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

PHP offers an alternative syntax for some of its control structures; namely, if, while, for, foreach, and switch. In each case, the basic form of the alternate syntax is to change the opening brace to a colon (:) and the closing brace to endif;, endwhile;, endfor;, endforeach;, or endswitch;, respectively.

<?php if ($a == 5): ?>
A is equal to 5
<?php endif; ?>

In the above example, the HTML block "A is equal to 5" is nested within an if statement written in the alternative syntax. The HTML block would be displayed only if $a is equal to 5.

The alternative syntax applies to else and elseif as well. The following is an if structure with elseif and else in the alternative format:

<?php
if ($a == 5):
echo
"a equals 5";
echo
"...";
elseif (
$a == 6):
echo
"a equals 6";
echo
"!!!";
else:
echo
"a is neither 5 nor 6";
endif;
?>

Note:

Mixing syntaxes in the same control block is not supported.

Warning

Any output (including whitespace) between a switch statement and the first case will result in a syntax error. For example, this is invalid:

<?php switch ($foo): ?>
<?php case 1: ?>
...
<?php endswitch; ?>

Whereas this is valid, as the trailing newline after the switch statement is considered part of the closing ?> and hence nothing is output between the switch and case:

<?php switch ($foo): ?>
<?php
case 1: ?>
...
<?php endswitch; ?>

See also while, for, and if for further examples.

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User Contributed Notes 1 note

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27
toxyy
2 years ago
I feel compelled to give a more elegant way using heredoc than the other comment:

<ul>
<?php foreach($list as $item): echo
<<<ITEM
<li id="itm-$item[number]">Item $item[name]</li>
ITEM;
endforeach;
?>
</ul>

Which works better with multi line blocks, as you only need one overall php tag.

(please don't omit the closing </li> tag despite it being legal, personal preference)
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