Print newline in PHP in single quotes
PhpStringPhp Problem Overview
I try to use single quotes as much as possible and I've noticed that I can't use \n in single quotes. I know I can just enter a newline literally by pressing return, but that screws up the indentation of my code.
Is there some ASCII character or something that I can type that will produce newline when I'm using single quotes?
Php Solutions
Solution 1 - Php
No, because single-quotes even inhibit hex code replacement.
echo 'Hello, world!' . "\xA";
Solution 2 - Php
echo 'hollow world' . PHP_EOL;
Use the constant PHP_EOL then it is OS independent too.
Solution 3 - Php
If you are echoing to a browser, you can use <br/> with your statement:
echo 'Will print a newline<br/>';
echo 'But this wont!';
Solution 4 - Php
FYI it is possible to get newlines into strings without double quotes:
printf('Please%1$sgive%1$sme%1$snewlines%1$s', PHP_EOL);
Which may be useful If your irrational fear of double quotes knows no bounds. Though I fear this cure may be worse than the disease.
Solution 5 - Php
The only escape sequence you can use in single quotes is for the single quote itself.
$foo = 'That\'s great';
The only way you could insert a new line into a string created with single quotes is to insert a literal newline
$bar = 'That\'s
cheating';
Solution 6 - Php
I wonder why no one added the alternative of using the function chr():
echo 'Hello World!' . chr(10);
or, more efficient if you're going to repeat it a million times:
define('C_NewLine', chr(10));
...
echo 'Hello World!' . C_NewLine;
This avoids the silly-looking notation of concatenating a single- and double-quoted string.
Solution 7 - Php
There IS a difference on using single VS double quotes in PHP
e.g:
echo '$var\n';echo "$var\n";
- in 1, PHP will print literally:
$var\n - in 2, PHP will have to search the location in memory for
$var, and return the value in that location, also, it will have to parse the \n as a new line character and print that result
We're in the range of millionths of a second, but there IS a difference in performance. I would recommend you to use single quotes whenever possible, even knowing you won't be able to perceive this performance increase. But I'm a paranoid developer when it comes to performance.
Solution 8 - Php
You may want to consider using <<<
e.g.
<<<VARIABLE
this is some
random text
that I'm typing
here and I will end it with the
same word I started it with
VARIABLE
More info at: http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php
Btw - Some Coding environments don't know how to handle the above syntax.
Solution 9 - Php
You can use this:
echo 'Hello World' . "\n";
Solution 10 - Php
This worked well for me:
print_r('Hello world'.PHP_EOL);
Solution 11 - Php
No, according to documentation, PHP recognize no special symbol in single quotes. And there is no single reason to use single quotes as much as possible
Solution 12 - Php
in case you have a variable :
$your_var = 'declare your var';
echo 'i want to show my var here'.$your_var.'<br>';