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PHP

Alex Flores
Alex Flores
7,864 Points
Posted by Alex Flores
Alex Flores
7,864 Points

PHP Endwhile & Endif

Hey all,

I'm currently learning The WordPress Template Hierarchy and there's this code in index.php that goes: 

<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
         <div class="page-header">
                    <h1><?php the_title(); ?> </h1>
         </div>

         <?php endhile; else: ?>
                <div class ="page-header">
                     <h1> Oh no </h1>
                </div>
          <?php endif; ?>

There are a few things that I don't get:

  1. What is endwhile and endif?

  2. What does ":" mean exactly?

  3. Why are they opening so many <?php ?> tags? Won't one suffice? I did the PHP basic course and they didn't cover any of this syntax.

Any help would be appreciated!

1 Answer

jcorum
jcorum
71,830 Points

Here's an excerpt from the PHP documentation that might help:

Alternative syntax for control structures ¶

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)
PHP offers an alternative syntax for some of its control structures; 
namely, if, while, for, foreach, and switch. In each case, the basic 
form of the alternate syntax is to change the opening brace to 
a colon (:) and the closing brace to endif;, endwhile;, endfor;, 
endforeach;, or endswitch;, respectively.

<?php if ($a == 5): ?>
A is equal to 5
<?php endif; ?>
In the above example, the HTML block "A is equal to 5" is nested 
within an if statement written in the alternative syntax. The HTML 
block would be displayed only if $a is equal to 5.

The alternative syntax applies to else and elseif as well. The following 
is an if structure with elseif and else in the alternative format:

<?php
if ($a == 5):
    echo "a equals 5";
    echo "...";
elseif ($a == 6):
    echo "a equals 6";
    echo "!!!";
else:
    echo "a is neither 5 nor 6";
endif;
?>
Note:
Mixing syntaxes in the same control block is not supported.

Here's a link to the source: http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.alternative-syntax.php