Core PHP Programming, Third Edition

Appendix D. PHP Tags

There are several ways to mark an area of PHP script in a Web page, displayed below. The results of the script, if any, will take the place in the final output. If a line break follows the closing tag, it will be removed. This helps you write more readable code.

<?
?>

This is the classic method for marking PHP code. Many of the examples found on the Internet use this method, probably because it's been available the longest. PHP 2 used this method, except that the second question mark was omitted.

This method is called short tags, and support for it may be turned on or off. One way is to use the short_tags function described in Chapter 15. A directive in the php.ini file controls enabling short tags for all scripts. You ...