Thanks for the nice explanation, Dan! On 7/30/08, Daniel Brown <parasane@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 6:51 PM, Stephen <stephen-d@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > I have traditionally used double quotes going back to my PASCAL days. > > > > I see many PHP examples using single quotes, and I began to adopt that > > convention. > > > > Even updating existing code. > > > > And I broke some stuff that was doing variable expansion. So I am back to > > using double quotes. > > > > But I wonder, is there any reason to use single quotes? > > Single quotes means literal, whereas double quotes means translated. > > For example: > > <?php > > // This returns exactly the same data: > $foo_a = "bar"; > $foo_b = 'bar'; > > echo $foo_a; // bar > echo $foo_b; // bar > > > // This returns different data: > $foo = "bar"; // Single quotes can be used here just the same. > > echo "The answer is $foo"; // The answer is bar > echo 'The answer is $foo'; // The answer is $foo > > > /* And if you want to use special > characters like newlines, you > MUST use double quotes. */ > > echo "This echoes a newline.\n"; // This echoes a newline. [newline] > echo 'This echoes a literal \n'; // This echoes a literal \n > > ?> > > Basically, double quotes evaluate certain things and return the > evaluation, while single quotes return EXACTLY what's typed between > them. > > -- > </Daniel P. Brown> > Better prices on dedicated servers: > Intel 2.4GHz/60GB/512MB/2TB $49.99/mo. > Intel 3.06GHz/80GB/1GB/2TB $59.99/mo. > Dedicated servers, VPS, and hosting from $2.50/mo. > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > >
