How to put in blocks of HTML

String Handling in PHP example from a Well House Consultants training course
More on String Handling in PHP [link]

This example is described in the following article(s):
• Extra PHP Examples - [link]

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This example references the following resources:
http://www.wellhousemanor.co.uk/\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melksham
http://www.wellho.net/demo/bookecho.jpg
http://www.wellho.net/resources/ex.php4?item=h107/echovalley.php
http://www.wellho.net/course/phfull.html
http://www.wellho.net/course/ptfull.html

Source code: echovalley.php Module: H107


<html>
<head>
<title>Blocks of text from your PHP</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php

/* I get rather tired of seeing books with the word
"echo" all the way down the left hand side when there
are FAR better ways of doing it ... */

# 1. How NOT to do it:

echo ("<h1>The Melksham Hotel</h1>");
echo ("\"Well House Manor\" is located in a quiet ");
echo ("area of the town just five minutes walk from ");
echo ("the town centre. We offer accommodation for the ");
echo ("business traveller to the town, with all rooms en ");
echo ("suite, large work areas, wired and wireless internet. " );
echo ("See <a href=\"http://www.wellhousemanor.co.uk/\">here</a>");
echo (" for more... <br><hr>");

# 2. Using a 'here' document:

echo <<<HIPPOTOPAMUS
<h1>Well House Consultants</h1>
At "Well House Consultants" we provide a fabulous range of
training courses like you've never experienced before.  Each of
the presentations is tailored to meet the needs of the delegates on
this course ... and our presenter is the author of the material.
See <a href="http://www.wellho.net">here</a> for more ... <br><hr>
HIPPOTOPAMUS;

# 3. By exiting PHP and re-entering

?>
<h1>Melksham - the new capital of England</h1>
"Is Melksham the capital of England" is a question that
I have never heard asked before, and the answer is "no,
it isn't" and it won't be in the forseeeable future. But
who knows what will happen in the 22nd and 23rd Centuries?
See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melksham">here</a>
for more ... <br><hr>
<?php

$now = date ("l jS F Y");
print ("Code run on $now");
?>
<br><hr>
<h1><u><font color='magenta'>About this example</font></u></h1>
<img src=http://www.wellho.net/demo/bookecho.jpg align=left hspace=5>
You'll often want to code blocks of text into your PHP ... and
there are a lot of ways of doing it - perhaps too many.   Some of
them are excellent - the "here" document, and including text from a
file - but others such as the use of multiple echos are frankly
awful - they're hard to debug in the first place, they're wasteful
of time, and they're nasty to maintain.  It's a trajedy that some
of the books which are published on PHP use this multiple echo
technique - for sure, it's easy to learn when you first come to
PHP but if you adopt it as your general style , you'll be lead up
a blind alley.   The illustration alongside this paragraph is a
photograph from a book (I'm allowed a 'short extert for critical
review' under copyright law) showing how you should NOT do it. The
source code of this example, available via <a
href="http://www.wellho.net/resources/ex.php4?item=h107/echovalley.php">this
link</a>, shows you some far better alternatives.</i><br><br>
You can learn PHP with us - "the proper way" on our
<a href=http://www.wellho.net/course/phfull.html>PHP Programming course</a>.
If you are already familiar with PHP but want to learn techniques for
writing code that's clear, easy to maintain, and provides a really good
user experience, come on our <a href=http://www.wellho.net/course/ptfull.html>PHP
techniques workshop</a> instead.<br clear=all>
</body>
</html>

Learn about this subject

This module and example are covered on the following public courses:
* Learning to program in PHP
* PHP Programming
* Beginning PHP - weekend course / hobby / club / leisure users
* PHP Programming
* Learning to program in PHP
Also available on on site courses for larger groups

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