Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

PHP

Tibor Katai
Tibor Katai
2,102 Points
Posted by Tibor Katai
Tibor Katai
2,102 Points

Why declaring variable outside the loop is a empty string? What is the benefit?

$file = 'filetest.txt'; $content = ''; // OUTSIDE EMPTY STRING

if ($handle = fopen($file,'r')) { while (!feof($handle)) { $content .= fgets($handle); // WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WHEN I ONLY DECLARING VARIABLE HERE, WHY DECLARING VARIABLE OUTSIDE THE LOOP? }

fclose($handle);

}

1 Answer

Corey Cramer
Corey Cramer
9,453 Points
Corey Cramer
Corey Cramer
9,453 Points

In short you can't use a concatenation assignment on an empty variable, it doesn't instantiate it on the first go around like you would expect.