How PHP Developers Differentiate Between Print And Echo

PHP is a highly robust language- one that has attracted web developers from all across the world to take place in the web application craze that’s been raging. Getting the most out of the language means understanding it- and something most developers don’t know is simple things such as the difference between Echo and Print.

Everyone in the PHP web development community is familiar with Echo and Print- two commands to output data to the screen. But what they may not know is that the two have the same output and similar structure- so why two commands for the same task?

The two language constructs Print and Echo differ because Echo does not return a value- although Print does. This is an odd thing to have, however, since a command used to output data to the screen will almost never need to return a value. In fact, even those who have been in the programming industry for years have probably never seen a good use of Print where Echo couldn’t follow.

Speed is a major concern in web applications. This holds true with the Print and Echo commands since it is logical to think that Print would cost more in resources to operate. This logic is actually true, although the differences in performance are so small that it isn’t even worth choosing one construct over the other solely based on performance.

So far the industry standard has been to use Echo, but it should be stressed that either command may be used at will. Echo seems to be the favorite as it is easier to type, not to mention it’s a fun word to say! Those who favor the Print command are usually older programmers, who are accustomed to using the command Print from other programming languages that are now considered archaic.

As a last note of worthiness, it should be made clear that if speed is an issue, more emphasis should be put on how the two commands are used. Repeatedly using either command where a programmer could simply concatenate a string or value together will waste system performance- and on a much more noticeable scale that the difference between returning a value or not. Thus, this subject should be addressed if anything in regards to speed.

In Conclusion

PHP development just wouldn’t be the same without fun debates such as the one just mentioned. But in reality, it really doesn’t matter which route is taken- so long as either language construct is used in a performance-based manner. Although Print may still have somewhat of a following today, as books and publishers start using Echo more often, it’s likely we’ll see a death to the Print command soon enough.

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