I'm wondering if there is a shorter way of inserting text in PHP than
<?php
$city = "London";
?>
This website is a funky guide to <?php print $city; ?>!!!
For example, using ruby on rails, I could set
city = 'London'
somewhere in the code, and in my .erb file I could do
This website is a funky guide to <%= city %>!!!
I did read somewhere that {$city} could be used, but I tried it and it didn't. So is there a shorter form than <?php print $var; ?> ?
If you switch out of PHP mode, then the only way to print the variable is to switch back into it and print it like you have above. You could stay in PHP mode and use the {} construction you tried:
<?php
$city = "London";
echo "This website is a funky guide to {$city}!!!";
?>
Just extend your PHP block and do this:
<?php
$city = 'London';
echo 'This website is a funky guide to ',$city,' !!!';
?>
Alternatively, you can use " " instead of ' ' and replace ',$city,' with $city, but it takes more CPU time to parse for variables.
I did read somewhere that {$city} could be used
If you go for a templating engine such as Smarty you can do this. That might be useful if you're developing in a team and some of them don't know PHP.
Otherwise, the shortest you will get is the following, assuming you have short tags enabled:
<?=$city?>
If you don't, or you're creating an app to redistribute to others, then use this:
<?php echo $city ?>