Question

I have the following line in a function in wordpress if(empty($paged)) $paged = 1; and I don’t understand why it doesn’t have an opening { and a closing }. Is it self opening and closing, not sure if that is even a term

Here is the function I am working with

<?php
function kriesi_pagination($pages = '', $range = 2)
{  
     $showitems = ($range * 2)+1;  

     global $paged;
     if(empty($paged)) $paged = 1;

     if($pages == '')
     {
         global $wp_query;
         $pages = $wp_query->max_num_pages;
         if(!$pages)
         {
             $pages = 1;
         }
     }   

     if(1 != $pages)
     {
         echo "<div class='pagination'>";
         if($paged > 2 && $paged > $range+1 && $showitems < $pages) echo "<a href='".get_pagenum_link(1)."'>&laquo;</a>";
         if($paged > 1 && $showitems < $pages) echo "<a href='".get_pagenum_link($paged - 1)."'>&lsaquo;</a>";

         for ($i=1; $i <= $pages; $i++)
         {
             if (1 != $pages &&( !($i >= $paged+$range+1 || $i <= $paged-$range-1) || $pages <= $showitems ))
             {
                 echo ($paged == $i)? "<span class='current'>".$i."</span>":"<a href='".get_pagenum_link($i)."' class='inactive' >".$i."</a>";
             }
         }

         if ($paged < $pages && $showitems < $pages) echo "<a href='".get_pagenum_link($paged + 1)."'>&rsaquo;</a>";  
         if ($paged < $pages-1 &&  $paged+$range-1 < $pages && $showitems < $pages) echo "<a href='".get_pagenum_link($pages)."'>&raquo;</a>";
         echo "</div>\n";
     }
}

?>

Answer 1

If the code you want to run after the if conditional is only one line you can omit the brackets. I find it confusing, so I don’t do it but it is valid PHP.

So, what your code does works:

if(empty($paged)) $paged = 1;

So would this:

if(empty($paged)) 
    $paged = 1; // semi-colon marks the end of the line

This would not:

if(empty($paged)) $paged = 1; $othervar = 2;

Nor would this:

if(empty($paged)) 
   $paged = 1; 
   $othervar = 2;

$othervar, in both cases, would “execute” outside the conditional– ie., it would always be set to 2.

There is another thread here: PHP – If/else, for, foreach, while – without curly braces?