PHP - Echo/Print

Introduction

In PHP, both echo and print statements are used to render the output either on the browser or the PHP console. Both of them are not functions but language constructs. Hence, parentheses should not be used with either of them.

The "echo" Statement in PHP

The echo statement is used with the following syntax:

echo(string ...$expressions): void

The echo statement outputs one or more expressions, with no additional newlines or spaces.

Example

Here is an example of how the echo statement works in PHP:

<?php
   $name = "Rajesh";
   echo "Hello " . $name . " How are you?";
?>

It will produce the following output:

Hello Rajesh How are you?

Since a double-quoted string is similar to a single-quoted string in PHP, the following statement produces the same output:

echo 'Hello ' . $name . ' How are you?';

Example

A double-quoted string outputs the value of the variable. Hence, the following statement inserts the value of $name variable before printing the output.

<?php
   $name = "Rajesh";
   echo "Hello $name How are you?";
?>

It will produce the following output:

Hello Rajesh How are you?

Example

But, a single-quoted string will output $name as it is.

<?php
   $name = "Rajesh";
   echo 'Hello $name How are you?';
?>

It will produce the following output:

Hello $name How are you?

A string passed to an echo statement can either be passed individually as multiple arguments or concatenated together and passed as a single argument. So, both the following statements are valid:

echo 'Hello ', 'how ', 'are ', 'you?', "\n";
echo 'Hello ' . 'how ' . 'are ' . 'you?' . "\n";

Example

Note that the output of the two successive echo statements will be rendered in the same line if the newline character is not used. Take a look at the following example:

<?php
   echo "hello";
   echo "world";
?>

It will produce the following output:

helloworld

The "print" Statement in PHP

The print statement is similar to echo, but it outputs an expression.

print(string $expression): int

Like echo, print is also a language construct. Its argument is an expression but it is not put in parentheses.

The major difference is that the print statement in PHP accepts a single argument only and always returns 1.

Example

Take a look at this following example:

<?php
   $name = "Rajesh";

   print "Hello " . $name . " How are you?\n";
   print "Hello $name How are you?";
?>

It will produce the following output:

Hello Rajesh How are you?
Hello Rajesh How are you?

Output Multiline Strings Using Print/Echo

Both echo and print statements can output multiline strings spanning over more than one line in the editor. Take a look at the following example:

<?php
   print "
   Multi-line
   string can be output  
   by echo as well as 
   print statement in PHP
   ";  
?>

It will produce the following output:

Multi-line
string can be output
by echo as well as
print statement in PHP

The output will remain the same if we replace print with echo.

PHP Echo/Print Diagram

note

Understanding the differences and similarities between echo and print helps in effectively rendering output in PHP. Both constructs are essential for displaying information in PHP scripts.