PHP - concatenate or directly insert variables in string

Question

I am wondering, What is the proper way for inserting PHP variables into a string?

This way:

echo \"Welcome \".$name.\"!\"
         


        

Answer 1

I know this is an old question, but I think someone has to mention all pros & cons:

Better Syntax: That's personal preference.

Performance: No difference. As many mentioned, double-quote might be faster if using unrealistically many variables.

Better Usage: Single quote (mostly). As @Khez said, with single quote you can concatenate anything, even function calls and variable modification, like so: echo 'hi ' . trim($name) . ($i + 1);. The only thing double-quote can do that single-quote cannot do is usage of \n, \r, \t and alike.

Readability: No difference (may personal preference apply).

Writability/Re-Writability/Debugging: In 1-line statements there is no difference, but when dealing with multiple lines, it's easier to comment/uncomment lines while debugging or writing. For example:

$q = 'SELECT ' .
     't1.col1 ' .
     ',t2.col2 ' .
   //',t3.col3 ' .
     'FROM tbl1 AS t1 ' .
     'LEFT JOIN tbl2 AS t2 ON t2.col2 = t1.col1 ' .
   //'LEFT JOIN tbl3 AS t3 ON t3.col3 = t2.col2 ' .
     'WHERE t1.col1 = ' . $x . ' ' .
     '  AND t2.col2 = ' . $y . ' ' .
   //'  AND t3.col3 = ' . $z . ' ' .
     'ORDER BY t1.col1 ASC ' .
     'LIMIT 10';

Less Escaping: Single-quote. For single quote you need to escape 2 characters only (' and \). For double quote you need to escape 2 characters (", \) and 3 more if required ($, { and }).

Less Changes: Single quote. For example if you have the following code:

echo 'Number ' . $i . '!';

And you need to increment 1 to $i, so it becomes likes:

echo 'Number ' . ($i + 1) . '!';

But for double quote, you will need to change this:

echo "Number $i!";

to this:

echo "Number " . ($i + 1) . "!";

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Conclusion: Use what you prefer.