Question

How should I format very long strings in my source code?
I follow the rule, that line of code should not be longer than 80 characters.
(The other rules are Zend Framework formatting standard)

e.g.

protected $_messages = array(
    'key1' => 'very, very long string lorem ipsum dolor sit amet…',
    'key2' => 'this one it very long too, and exceeds 80 characters len…'
);

Answer 1

If you cannot store the values in a DB/file (as per adam/Peter), and you absolutely need to keep the 80/120 character limit as per Zend Framework guidelines, then you can adhere to them even in this case.

As per:
http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/coding-standard.coding-style.html

String Concatenation (one level extra indentation)

$sql = "SELECT `id`, `name` FROM `people` "
    . "WHERE `name` = 'Susan' "
    . "ORDER BY `name` ASC ";

Associative Arrays (one level extra indentation)

$sampleArray = array(
    'firstKey'  => 'firstValue',
    'secondKey' => 'secondValue',
);

The above two combined (two level extra indentation for long strings)

protected $_messages = array(
    'key1' => 'very, very long string '
        . 'lorem ipsum dolor sit amet…',
    'key2' => 'this one it very long too, '
        . 'and exceeds 80 characters len…'
);

---

Edit:
The above does not work (thanks & sorry takeshin), as PHP does not seem to allow any code/operators in initial values of class properties.

The solution is to concatenate and set the initial values in class constructor:

<?php

class bar {
    protected $_messages = Array();

    public function __construct() {

        // manually initialize, or load from DB/XML/etc
        $this->_messages[] = "very, very long string "
            . "lorem ipsum dolor sit amet";

        $this->_messages[] = "this one it very long too, "
            . "and exceeds 80 characters len";

        var_dump( $this->_messages );
    }
}

$foo = new bar();

?>