What is “:” in PHP? [closed]

11
votes

What does the symbol : mean in PHP?

6
phpsyntax
Could you please post the code that it appears in? It could have different meanings, depending on the context. – FrustratedWithFormsDesigner
When asking a questions please be specific. Oftentimes, this means giving a code example. – Armstrongest
Scope Resolution Operator(:) php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.paamayim-nekudotayim.php – Mahendra Jella

6 Answers

35
votes

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.

21
votes

You also encounter : if you use the alternative syntax for control structures:

<?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;
?>

Or as already mentioned the ternary operator:

$action = (empty($_POST['action'])) ? 'default' : $_POST['action'];

(Examples taken from the documentation)

Edit: Somehow I didn't see that the alternative syntax was already mentioned, must be too tired ;) Anyway, I will leave it as it is, as I think an actual example and a link to the documentation is more helpful than just plain text.

9
votes

I'm guessing you're seeing this syntax:

print ($item ? $item : '');

This is a short form of if/else. The ? is the if, and the : is the else.

3
votes

Shorter if statement:

$val = (condition) ? "condition is true" : "condition is false";
1
votes

As others have posted, you probably are looking at ternary logic.

However, if two of them are together, then it is the scope resolution operator, used for referencing status methods/properties and constants.

1
votes

It can mean a number of things. You may mean the ternary operator, ?:.