Question

What is the difference between the 2 statements:

if (false === $variable) {
  //do something
}

and

if ($variable === false) {
  //do something
}

I personally use the second style but often run into code in frameworks that i use which always seem to use the first style.

Is there a difference ( i suspect it is some legacy thing to do with types) or is this simply a coding habit (it must be rooted in something though??)

If not, what is the reasoning behind the first style given that the logic is actually backwards.

Answer 1

if ($foo = false) (note: = instead of ==) is a typical typo that leads to hard to debug problems. For that reason, some people prefer false == $foo, since the runtime will throw an error when you try to assign something to false.

Other than that there’s no difference.