Question

Does this not work? or am I just doing it wrong? Tried multiple variations of it, and can’t seem to find any solid info on the subject. any ideas?

    $given_id = 1;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql))
{
    if ($i < 10){
    $display = '<a href="' . $row['info'] . '" onMouseOver="' . if($row['type']=="battle"){ . 'showB' . } else { . 'showA'() . "><div class="' . $row['type'] . "_alert" . '" style="float:left; margin-left:-22px;" id="' . $given_id . '"></div></a>';

Answer 1

if is a self standing statement. It’s a like a complete statement. So you can’t use it in between concatenetion of strings or so.
The better solution is to use the shorthand ternary operatior

    (conditional expression)?(ouput if true):(output if false);

This can be used in concatenation of strings also. Example :

    $i = 1 ;
    $result = 'The given number is'.($i > 1 ? 'greater than one': 'less than one').'. So this is how we cuse ternary inside concatenation of strings';

You can use nested ternary operator also:

    $i = 0 ;
    $j = 1 ;
    $k = 2 ;
    $result = 'Greater One is'. $i > $j ? ( $i > $k ? 'i' : 'k' ) : ( $j > $k ? 'j' :'k' ).'.';