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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-10T02:08:31+00:00

Can someone please explain to me the use of alternative syntax I often come

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Can someone please explain to me the use of alternative syntax I often come across when looking at php usage in word press. Take conditionals for example:

I expect to see:

if(10==10)
echo 'this is true and will be shown';

Instead, I see:

if(10==10):
echo 'this is true and will be shown;
end if;

And another example:

! empty ( $classes_names ) 
and  $class_names = ' class="'. esc_attr( $class_names ) . '"';

Whats with the ‘:’ the ‘end if;’ and the last examples syntax is not something I have seen before put together like that.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    This is the alternative logic syntax in PHP – you can read all about it here – http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.alternative-syntax.php

    If you are including conditional statements in amongst HTML or other code then it makes things look a lot neater.

    For example:

    <body>
<? if($_GET['name']=='Dave') {?>
<h3>Hello Dave!</h3>
<? } else { ?>
<h3>Hello Stranger!</h3>
<? }?>
</body>

    Looks much nicer IMO as:

    <body>
<? if($_GET['name']=='Dave'):?>
<h3>Hello Dave!</h3>
<? else:?>
<h3>Hello Stranger!</h3>
<? endif;?>
</body>

    As for the final code example – this is another way of writing an if statement – so this:

    <? !empty ( $classes_names ) and  $class_names = ' class="'. esc_attr( $class_names ) . '"';?>

    Is the same as:

    <? 
if (!empty($classes_names)){
$class_names = ' class="'. esc_attr( $class_names ) . '"';
}
?>

    That is definitely confusing for sure!

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