Hi there,
Trying to improve PHP, and also its documentation.
I saw something on reddit's /r/lolphp (you can probably guess what it's
for...) about the echo() "function". I decided to make a patch that
better clarifies that it is not a function, and also doesn't leave the
description of ... blank. It is attached.
It would be nice to have SVN access, eventually. :P
Thanks.
--
Andrew Faulds
http://ajf.me/
--- en/reference/strings/functions/echo.xml
+++ en/reference/strings/functions/echo.xml
@@ -9,21 +9,28 @@
<refsect1 role="description">
&reftitle.description;
<methodsynopsis>
- <type>void</type><methodname>echo</methodname>
+ <type>void</type> <methodname>echo</methodname>
<methodparam><type>string</type><parameter>arg1</parameter></methodparam>
<methodparam choice="opt"><type>string</type><parameter>...</parameter></methodparam>
</methodsynopsis>
<simpara>
- Outputs all parameters.
+ Outputs all parameters with no spaces inbetween.
</simpara>
<para>
- <literal>echo</literal> is not actually a function (it is a
- language construct), so you are not required to use parentheses
- with it. <literal>echo</literal> (unlike some other language
- constructs) does not behave like a function, so it cannot
- always be used in the context of a function. Additionally, if you want to
- pass more than one parameter to <literal>echo</literal>, the parameters
- must not be enclosed within parentheses.
+ <literal>echo</literal> is not a function, it is a
+ language construct, and so it does not use parentheses round arguments. Be warned, looks can be deceptive:
+ <informalexample>
+ <programlisting role="php">
+<![CDATA[
+// works, equivalent to: echo "test";
+echo("test");
+// doesn't work
+echo("john", " ", "smith");
+// works
+echo "john", " ", "smith";
+]]>
+ </programlisting>
+ </informalexample>
</para>
<para>
<literal>echo</literal> also has a shortcut syntax, where you can
@@ -49,7 +56,7 @@
<term><parameter>arg1</parameter></term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The parameter to output.
+ Parameter to output.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -57,6 +64,7 @@
<term><parameter>...</parameter></term>
<listitem>
<para>
+ Other parameters to output.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -111,6 +119,9 @@
echo 'This ', 'string ', 'was ', 'made ', 'with multiple parameters.', chr(10);
echo 'This ' . 'string ' . 'was ' . 'made ' . 'with concatenation.' . "\n";
+// However, beware that echo is not a function, this is a syntax error:
+echo ('This ', 'statement ', 'will ', 'not ', 'work.');
+
echo <<<END
This uses the "here document" syntax to output
multiple lines with $variable interpolation. Note
