Echo vs print behavior in PHP - Hands-On Comparison

Echo vs print behavior

📖 Scenario: You are learning how to display text in PHP. Two common ways are using echo and print. They look similar but have small differences.

🎯 Goal: You will create a PHP script that shows how echo and print work by displaying messages and checking their return values.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable with a string message

Use echo to display the message

Use print to display the message and capture its return value

Display the return value of print

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Displaying messages and debugging output is a basic task in PHP web development.

💼 Career

Understanding how to output text and the differences between <code>echo</code> and <code>print</code> helps in writing clear and efficient PHP code.

1

Create a message variable

Create a variable called $message and set it to the string 'Hello, PHP!'.

PHP

<?php

// Create a variable called $message and set it to 'Hello, PHP!'
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use $message = 'Hello, PHP!'; to create the variable.

2

Display the message using echo

Use echo to display the variable $message.

PHP

<?php

$message = 'Hello, PHP!';

// Use echo to display $message
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Write echo $message; to show the message.

3

Display the message using print and save return value

Use print to display the variable $message and save the return value in a variable called $result.

PHP

<?php

$message = 'Hello, PHP!';
echo $message;

// Use print to display $message and save return value in $result
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Write $result = print $message; to display and save the return value.

4

Display the return value of print

Use echo to display the text 'Return value of print: ' followed by the value of $result.

PHP

<?php

$message = 'Hello, PHP!';
echo $message;
$result = print $message;

// Display 'Return value of print: ' and $result
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo "Return value of print: $result"; to show the return value.