Some Alternative Syntax

PHP also has some alternative syntax for if, while, for, foreach, and switch statements. In each case, the form of the alternate syntax changes the opening curly brace to a colon (:) and the closing brace to endif;, endwhile;, endfor;, endforeach;, or endswitch;, respectively.

Here's an example showing an if statement using alternate syntax:

 <?php $value = 10; if ($value == 1):     echo "\$value holds 1"; elseif ($value == 10):     echo "\$value holds 10."; else:     echo "\$value does not hold 1 or 10."; endif; ?>   

This example echoes: "$value holds 10.".

Here's an example of using a for loop and alternate syntax:

 <?php     for ($loop_counter = 0; $loop_counter < 5; $loop_counter++) :         echo "I'm going to do this five times.<BR>";     endfor; ?> 

That's it; now that we've got operators and loops under our belts, we're ready to tackle the next stepworking with strings and arrays, coming up next in Chapter 3.