Question

The below code is working with only print statement

 file_exists('index.php') || print "hi"; \\ works fine and prints hi



 file_exists('index.php') || echo "hi";  \\ error 

Why does print work but echo causes a parse error?

Answer 1

This is because echo is a language construct and print is a built-in function.

Using echo is also slightly faster than print for the same reason, but causes a parser error when used inside an expression.

See also the bug report: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=15866