special tags in php

Question

can anybody please explain what are these special tags in php?

<?= ?>

I couldn't find it on google.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1656795/shorter-way-of-echoing-a-variable-in-php — karim79, Apr 18 '10 at 14:16

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

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See the short_open_tags setting. <?= is identical to <? echo and use of it requires short_open_tag to be on. A term to search for would be "short tags".

As an example: <?='hello'?> is identical to <? echo 'hello' ?> which is a short form of <?php echo 'hello' ?>.

See also Are PHP short tags acceptable to use? here on SO.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

Community

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answered Apr 18 '10 at 14:14

salathe

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Thanks salathe for the detailed explanation! – heapzero Apr 18 '10 at 14:25
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@heapzero: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2413661/php6-is-short-open-tag-removed-or-deprecated-or-neither/2413675#2413675 – Alix Axel Apr 19 '10 at 00:58
@Alix Axel Thanks for the link! – heapzero Apr 19 '10 at 10:32

Wolph · Answer 2 · 2010-04-19T00:04:21.647

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It's part of the short_open_tag. Basically <?=$foo?> is equivalent to <?php echo $foo; ?>

edited Apr 19 '10 at 00:04

answered Apr 18 '10 at 14:11

Wolph

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Short_open_tag is primary ?>. "Short_open_tag also affects the shorthand =, which is identical to echo. Use of this shortcut requires short_open_tag to be on" - citation from php.net. So it is not basically short_open_tag. – retro Apr 18 '10 at 14:16
Indeed retro, I modified my answer to be more specific :) – Wolph Apr 19 '10 at 00:04

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 18 '10 at 14:10

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They output what's inside them directly.

<?= "something" ?>

is a shortcut for:

<?php echo "something"; ?>

These (together with <? ?>) are called short tags. See here (short_open_tag)

answered Apr 18 '10 at 14:10

Bozho

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 24 '14 at 18:36

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yes you can done it using .htaccess. In your .htaccess file, add this

php_value short_open_tag 1

Now you can check files with <?='hi';?> instead of <?php ?>

edited Aug 24 '14 at 18:36

Brad Larson

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answered Jan 06 '14 at 09:41

php

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 18 '10 at 14:12

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<?= $foobar ?> is a shortcut for <?php echo $foobar; ?>.

I wouldn't recommend using these short tags because in some webserver environments they are disabled via PHPs configuration.

answered Apr 18 '10 at 14:12

selfawaresoup

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Any decent PHP application requires a lot of configuration options, from mod_rewrite to memory_limit and post_max_size. Go tell everyone these are not recommended for use – Your Common Sense Apr 18 '10 at 15:06

special tags in php

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