<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Alternative syntax for control structures</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Manual PHP" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Control Structures" HREF="language.control-structures.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="elseif" HREF="control-structures.elseif.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="while" HREF="control-structures.while.html"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-2"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="sect1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Manual PHP</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="control-structures.elseif.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Înapoi</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Cap. 11. Control Structures</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="control-structures.while.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Înainte</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect1" ><H1 CLASS="sect1" ><A NAME="control-structures.alternative-syntax" >Alternative syntax for control structures</A ></H1 ><P > PHP offers an alternative syntax for some of its control structures; namely, <VAR CLASS="literal" >if</VAR >, <VAR CLASS="literal" >while</VAR >, <VAR CLASS="literal" >for</VAR >, <VAR CLASS="literal" >foreach</VAR >, and <VAR CLASS="literal" >switch</VAR >. In each case, the basic form of the alternate syntax is to change the opening brace to a colon (:) and the closing brace to <VAR CLASS="literal" >endif;</VAR >, <VAR CLASS="literal" >endwhile;</VAR >, <VAR CLASS="literal" >endfor;</VAR >, <VAR CLASS="literal" >endforeach;</VAR >, or <VAR CLASS="literal" >endswitch;</VAR >, respectively. <DIV CLASS="informalexample" ><P ></P ><A NAME="AEN2456" ></A ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><code><font color="#000000"> <font color="#0000BB"><?php </font><font color="#007700">if (</font><font color="#0000BB">$a </font><font color="#007700">== </font><font color="#0000BB">5</font><font color="#007700">): </font><font color="#0000BB">?><br /></font>A is equal to 5<br /><font color="#0000BB"><?php </font><font color="#007700">endif; </font><font color="#0000BB">?></font> </font> </code></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV > </P ><P > In the above example, the HTML block "A is equal to 5" is nested within an <VAR CLASS="literal" >if</VAR > statement written in the alternative syntax. The HTML block would be displayed only if <VAR CLASS="varname" >$a</VAR > is equal to 5. </P ><P > The alternative syntax applies to <VAR CLASS="literal" >else</VAR > and <VAR CLASS="literal" >elseif</VAR > as well. The following is an <VAR CLASS="literal" >if</VAR > structure with <VAR CLASS="literal" >elseif</VAR > and <VAR CLASS="literal" >else</VAR > in the alternative format: <DIV CLASS="informalexample" ><P ></P ><A NAME="AEN2467" ></A ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" CELLPADDING="5" ><TR ><TD ><code><font color="#000000"> <font color="#0000BB"><?php<br /></font><font color="#007700">if (</font><font color="#0000BB">$a </font><font color="#007700">== </font><font color="#0000BB">5</font><font color="#007700">):<br /> echo </font><font color="#DD0000">"a equals 5"</font><font color="#007700">;<br /> echo </font><font color="#DD0000">"..."</font><font color="#007700">;<br />elseif (</font><font color="#0000BB">$a </font><font color="#007700">== </font><font color="#0000BB">6</font><font color="#007700">):<br /> echo </font><font color="#DD0000">"a equals 6"</font><font color="#007700">;<br /> echo </font><font color="#DD0000">"!!!"</font><font color="#007700">;<br />else:<br /> echo </font><font color="#DD0000">"a is neither 5 nor 6"</font><font color="#007700">;<br />endif;<br /></font><font color="#0000BB">?></font> </font> </code></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P ></P ></DIV > </P ><P > See also <A HREF="control-structures.while.html" >while</A >, <A HREF="control-structures.for.html" >for</A >, and <A HREF="language.control-structures.html#control-structures.if" >if</A > for further examples. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="control-structures.elseif.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Înapoi</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Acasã</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="control-structures.while.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Înainte</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><VAR CLASS="literal" >elseif</VAR ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="language.control-structures.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Sus</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><VAR CLASS="literal" >while</VAR ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >