Question

Simple but this has always bothered me. Which is the best way to condition statement?

$foo = '1';

if($foo === '1' || $foo === '2' || $foo === '3')
{
// foo matches 
}

or 

if($foo === '1' || '2' || '3')
{
// foo matches
}

Which step works and is better. is there a better solution?

Answer 1

The second version will always evaluate to true.

If you want to compact the comparison against multiple alternatives then use:

if (in_array($foo, array('1', '2', '3') )) {

If you want to closely match the exact comparison === then you would however need:

if (is_string($foo) && in_array($foo, array(...))) {