Php/docs/control-structures.alternative-syntax

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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:

<?phpif ($a == 5):    echo "a equals 5";    echo "...";elseif ($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.