search
HomeBackend DevelopmentPHP TutorialBasic Tutorial: Distinguishing Confusing Functions in PHP_PHP Tutorial

Today I saw that Caterpillar made a distinction between empty strings and NULL (http://bbs.phpchina.com/thread-99574-1-2.html), and I feel that I don’t know the basics. Solid little birds (such as me) are very helpful. It was late at night, and on a whim, I checked a lot of "authoritative information" and wrote an article and posted it here to refresh the basic knowledge with everyone. Of course, my title was not It’s not rigorous, and the content is just a personal summary. If there are any deficiencies, experts are welcome to add more. Without further ado, the text is as follows:

1.The difference between echo and print

The functions of echo and print in PHP are basically the same (output), but there are subtle differences between the two. There is no return value after echo output, but print has a return value, and it returns false when its execution fails. Therefore, it can be used as a normal function. For example, after executing the following code, the value of variable $r will be 1.
Code:

$r = print "Hello World";


This means that print can be used in some complex expressions, but echo cannot. However, because the echo statement does not require any value to be returned, the echo statement in the code runs slightly faster than the print statement.

2.The difference between include and require

The functions of include() and require() are basically the same (include), but there are some differences in usage. include() is a conditional inclusion function, while require() is an unconditional inclusion function. For example, in the following code, if the variable $a is true, the file a.php will be included:
Code:

if($a){
include("a.php");
}


And require() is different from include(). Regardless of the value of $a, the following code will include the file a.php into the file:
Code:

if($a){
require("a.php");
}


In terms of error handling, use the include statement. If an include error occurs, the program will skip the include statement. Although the error message will be displayed, the program will continue to execute! But require will give you a fatal error.
Of course, we can also understand Qifen literally: require means a very strong request or request.

3.require_once() and include_once() statements

I’m off topic, because they look similar. Simple require_once() and include_once() statements correspond to require() and include() statements respectively. The require_once() and include_once() statements are mainly used when multiple files need to be included, which can effectively avoid the error of repeated definition of functions or variables caused by including the same piece of code.

4. The difference between empty string () and NULL

Both empty strings and NULL in PHP are stored with a value of 0, but their types are different. You can try echo gettype(); and echo gettype(NULL); and you will find the difference in their printouts. It is string and NULL, and of course 0 is also easy to confuse. You can try echo gettype(0); print the type and you will find that the type of 0 is integer (integer). It can be seen that string (), NULL and 0 are " "Equal" but not equal types.

5.!The difference between isset and empty

We can understand from the literal meaning: empty is to determine whether a variable is "empty", while isset is to determine whether a variable has been set. But there is one thing you must pay attention to here: when the value of a variable is 0, empty considers the variable to be equal to empty, which is equivalent to no setting. For example, when we detect the $id variable, when $id=0, we use empty and isset to detect whether the variable $id has been configured. Both will return different values: empty thinks it is not configured, and isset can get the value of $id. , see the example below:
Code? :

$id=0;
empty($id)?print "I am empty":print "I am $id ."; //Result: I am empty
!isset($id )?print "I am empty":print "I am $id.";//Result: I am 0


6. The difference between == (equal) and === (equal)

Review the difference between the fourth empty string ("") and NULL above, let's look at another example:
Code:

== NULL;
=== NULL;

After running it, you will find that the first one is true, and the second one is false! It can be seen that == only compares whether the values ​​are equal, while === not only compares the values, but also compares the types, which is more strict.

www.bkjia.comtruehttp: //www.bkjia.com/PHPjc/486605.htmlTechArticleToday I saw that the caterpillar made a distinction between empty strings and NULLs (http://bbs. phpchina.com/thread-99574-1-2.html), I feel it is very helpful for little birds (like me) who do not have solid basic knowledge...
Statement
The content of this article is voluntarily contributed by netizens, and the copyright belongs to the original author. This site does not assume corresponding legal responsibility. If you find any content suspected of plagiarism or infringement, please contact admin@php.cn
PHP Performance Tuning for High Traffic WebsitesPHP Performance Tuning for High Traffic WebsitesMay 14, 2025 am 12:13 AM

ThesecrettokeepingaPHP-poweredwebsiterunningsmoothlyunderheavyloadinvolvesseveralkeystrategies:1)ImplementopcodecachingwithOPcachetoreducescriptexecutiontime,2)UsedatabasequerycachingwithRedistolessendatabaseload,3)LeverageCDNslikeCloudflareforservin

Dependency Injection in PHP: Code Examples for BeginnersDependency Injection in PHP: Code Examples for BeginnersMay 14, 2025 am 12:08 AM

You should care about DependencyInjection(DI) because it makes your code clearer and easier to maintain. 1) DI makes it more modular by decoupling classes, 2) improves the convenience of testing and code flexibility, 3) Use DI containers to manage complex dependencies, but pay attention to performance impact and circular dependencies, 4) The best practice is to rely on abstract interfaces to achieve loose coupling.

PHP Performance: is it possible to optimize the application?PHP Performance: is it possible to optimize the application?May 14, 2025 am 12:04 AM

Yes,optimizingaPHPapplicationispossibleandessential.1)ImplementcachingusingAPCutoreducedatabaseload.2)Optimizedatabaseswithindexing,efficientqueries,andconnectionpooling.3)Enhancecodewithbuilt-infunctions,avoidingglobalvariables,andusingopcodecaching

PHP Performance Optimization: The Ultimate GuidePHP Performance Optimization: The Ultimate GuideMay 14, 2025 am 12:02 AM

ThekeystrategiestosignificantlyboostPHPapplicationperformanceare:1)UseopcodecachinglikeOPcachetoreduceexecutiontime,2)Optimizedatabaseinteractionswithpreparedstatementsandproperindexing,3)ConfigurewebserverslikeNginxwithPHP-FPMforbetterperformance,4)

PHP Dependency Injection Container: A Quick StartPHP Dependency Injection Container: A Quick StartMay 13, 2025 am 12:11 AM

APHPDependencyInjectionContainerisatoolthatmanagesclassdependencies,enhancingcodemodularity,testability,andmaintainability.Itactsasacentralhubforcreatingandinjectingdependencies,thusreducingtightcouplingandeasingunittesting.

Dependency Injection vs. Service Locator in PHPDependency Injection vs. Service Locator in PHPMay 13, 2025 am 12:10 AM

Select DependencyInjection (DI) for large applications, ServiceLocator is suitable for small projects or prototypes. 1) DI improves the testability and modularity of the code through constructor injection. 2) ServiceLocator obtains services through center registration, which is convenient but may lead to an increase in code coupling.

PHP performance optimization strategies.PHP performance optimization strategies.May 13, 2025 am 12:06 AM

PHPapplicationscanbeoptimizedforspeedandefficiencyby:1)enablingopcacheinphp.ini,2)usingpreparedstatementswithPDOfordatabasequeries,3)replacingloopswitharray_filterandarray_mapfordataprocessing,4)configuringNginxasareverseproxy,5)implementingcachingwi

PHP Email Validation: Ensuring Emails Are Sent CorrectlyPHP Email Validation: Ensuring Emails Are Sent CorrectlyMay 13, 2025 am 12:06 AM

PHPemailvalidationinvolvesthreesteps:1)Formatvalidationusingregularexpressionstochecktheemailformat;2)DNSvalidationtoensurethedomainhasavalidMXrecord;3)SMTPvalidation,themostthoroughmethod,whichchecksifthemailboxexistsbyconnectingtotheSMTPserver.Impl

See all articles

Hot AI Tools

Undresser.AI Undress

Undresser.AI Undress

AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover

AI Clothes Remover

Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Undress AI Tool

Undress AI Tool

Undress images for free

Clothoff.io

Clothoff.io

AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap

Video Face Swap

Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

mPDF

mPDF

mPDF is a PHP library that can generate PDF files from UTF-8 encoded HTML. The original author, Ian Back, wrote mPDF to output PDF files "on the fly" from his website and handle different languages. It is slower than original scripts like HTML2FPDF and produces larger files when using Unicode fonts, but supports CSS styles etc. and has a lot of enhancements. Supports almost all languages, including RTL (Arabic and Hebrew) and CJK (Chinese, Japanese and Korean). Supports nested block-level elements (such as P, DIV),

SublimeText3 Chinese version

SublimeText3 Chinese version

Chinese version, very easy to use

WebStorm Mac version

WebStorm Mac version

Useful JavaScript development tools

Zend Studio 13.0.1

Zend Studio 13.0.1

Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver Mac version

Dreamweaver Mac version

Visual web development tools