Question

Just curious…when writing a require/include statement, what do you prefer as better practice?

require('filename.php');

or

require 'filename.php';

Thanks!

Answer 1

Always the latter – the same applies to echo, print and other language constructs, too. Never add additional parenthesis after language constructs!

The reason is simple: Using parenthesis makes you believe that require is a function – which it is not! For example:

if (require('file.php') == false) {
    // do stuff
}

You – and probably even most of the senior PHP developers – would say that this compares the return value of the require. But it does not! PHP interprets this as:

if (require (('file.php') == false)) {
    // do stuff
}

which is:

if (require '') {
    // do stuff
}

If you use parenthesis with language constructs you could as well write:

require(((((((((((((((((((('file.php'))))))))))))))))))))

Or would you ever write:

array(('hi'));

That’s just as much the same nonsense.