What kind of syntax is this in PHP?

Question

if(true):
    echo 'good';
endif;

I've only see it in PHP today!

I've always been using:

if(true)
{
   echo 'good';
}

Answer 1

It is the Alternative syntax for control structures.

Quoting that page of the manual :

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.

I don't often see it used in "pure PHP" files, but it's quite often used when PHP is mixed with HTML in the same file -- i.e. when used as a templating language.

Answer 2

You can interlace the former with html very easily.

http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.alternative-syntax.php

Answer 3

It's exactly the same. I often use such syntax in templates - it's much more readable then (in my opinion). Here's more: Alternative syntax for control structures

Answer 4

The PHP notation:

if(x=1):
  dosomething();
elseif(x=2):
  dosomethingelse();
  andanotherthing();
else:
  doesntmatcheither();
endif;

is also related to

$var=(query?true:false);

or in even more shorthand

$var=query?true:false;

But I personally don't like omitting the parenthesis; call me paranoid ;)

Answer 5

same effect, no diference and in my personal opinion the offer better readble code and clean syntax, also the end-like closing keyword might help in nested control structures, to indicate which one is closing instead of guessing from a bunch of braces.