Print newline in PHP in single quotes

Question

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

Answer 1

No, because single-quotes even inhibit hex code replacement.

echo 'Hello, world!' . "\xA";

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

There IS a difference on using single VS double quotes in PHP

e.g: 1. echo '$var\n'; 2. echo "$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.

Answer 4

If you are echoing to a browser, you can use <br/> with your statement:

echo 'Will print a newline<br/>';
echo 'But this wont!';

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

You can use this:

echo 'Hello World' . "\n";