Question

In a lot of CakePHP examples, I see <?php echo $myVar; ?> I’ve always written this in shorthand like <?php=$myVar?>

Is there any difference? Is <?php echo better for some reason? I always lean toward the shorter, but – when I see everyone else using the <?php echo, I wonder – maybe I’m doing it wrong.

What about in CakePHP – is it different for some reason?

Answer 1

<?= or <?php= has to be enabled for it to work properly via the short_open_tag in your php.ini. Since some systems out there have this value disabled, it’s encouraged that you use <?php echo to ensure that your code will always work on any system it runs on.