Preferred formatting for this / best practice?

Question

Suppose I want to create a select box in PHP.

$months = array ('Jan','Feb','Mar','Apr','May','Jun','Jul','Aug','Sep','Oct','Nov','Dec');

Option 1:

<select name="month">
    <option value="">Month</option>
    <option value="">-------</option>
    <?php foreach ($months as $monthNum => $month) { ?>
    <option value="<?php echo $monthNum+1 ?>"><?php echo $month ?></option>
    <?php } ?>
</select>

Option 2:

<select name="month">
    <option value="">Month</option>
    <option value="">-------</option>
    <?php 
        foreach (months() as $monthNum => $month) 
            echo '<option value="' . ($monthNum+1) . '">' . $month . "</option>\n"; 
?>
</select>

I personally think Option 1 renders the code harder to read and understand, at the same time Option 2 screws the indentation and puts more HTML into PHP.

Which option is preferred?

EDIT: I don't want to add another template engine on top of PHP, which is itself a template engine.

Answer 1

I'd go for a) what ever is easier to maintain for you and your colleagues and b) consistency.

If you (and your colleagues) think that 1 is harder to read and understand then don't use it. In 6/12/18 months time when you come back to the code it will be even harder to understand than it is now.

Answer 2

Option 2 no doubt, is semantic where is php is php where is html is html

Answer 3

Personally, I use Option 1, because I consider it a supreme priority to keep HTML and PHP code as separate as possible.

If it helps, I often use the shorthand <?= 'value'; ?> instead of <?php echo 'value'; ?>.

Answer 4

I think option 1 is perfectly fine to read. However, if you do not like the lonely } at the end, you could use php's alternativ syntax (using endforeach).

Answer 5

I think the second option is better because things like <option value="<?php echo $monthNum+1 ?>"> simply are hard to read and understand and imho even a little bit illogical (a tag in a tag.)

But honestly, use what you like more. Only one suggestions: Maybe instead of using <?php foreach () { ?> ... <?php } ?> which is sometimes hard to understand you may use this syntax: <?php foreach (): ?> ... <?php endforeach; ?>. Especially if you start having foreaches in fors in whiles in foreaches in fors this syntax may be a little bit easier to understand.

Answer 6

In my opinion option 2 reads like a script that spits out some strings, where option 1 reads like an HTML template with embedded PHP code. For view templates in an MVC framework, I find that option 1 is the best looking and easiest to read. For CLI or other purposes, option 2 works better.