HEREDOC interfering with code indentation

Question

I like the HEREDOC syntax, e.g. for edge cases of generated HTML that are not worth putting into a template.

The only thing that annoys me about it, though, is that the content, and the closing marker of a heredoc string adheres to the first column. This screws up nested code layouts:

class myclass 
 { 

    function __construct()
      { 
       $a = some_code();
       $b = some_more_code();
       $x = <<<EOT

line1
line2
line3
line4

EOT;    

        $c = even_more_code();
        $b = still_more_code();
        ...
        ...
        ...

you see what I mean. Now this is probably not solvable using normal HEREDOC. Has anybody worked around this? My wet dream would be to have HEREDOC syntax with automatic indentation. But I guess this is not possible without writing some pre-compiler for the source files.

Am I correct?

Answer 1

Yes, you're correct.

Answer 2

That's a problem I often have too : the code is not well indented when I use heredoc, and I really like heredoc :-(

A "bigger" problem is when you select a whole block of code, press "tab" (or any equivalent in your IDE) to indent it more because you added a condition arround it or anything... And it breaks the heredoc strings : you have to go un-indent them by hand :-(

Unfortunatly, I've never seen any tool like the one you're describing...

A solution, I suppose, would be to put the heredoc string in another file, and include it -- the include like could be indented normally ; but it would also mean one more file to load, which would make the code less clear.

Answer 3

Heredoc is pretty useless in production code. Not just for the reason you state, but also because you're mixing presentation content with business logic.

If you're already using a MVC approach, then why not just stick with it? Put the heredoc text into a view script, bind variables to its scope, and then render it. When you look back a year from now, you'll thank yourself.