Question

<?
if($id == 2) {
?>
       html goes here
<?
} 
else { 
?>
       if id is not 2 then something goes here
<?
}
?>

How can I write php+html in one file more beautiful without learning smarty?

Answer 1

You can use PHP’s alternative syntax for control structures:

<? if ($id == 2): ?>
    <h2>some html</h2>
<? else: ?>
    <h2>another html chunk</h2>
<? endif ?>

Note that short_open_tags is a php.ini directive that needs to be enabled explicitly, otherwise you would have to write <?php each time.