How to format long echo expressions in PHP? - php

Question

I'm writing my function in PHP for listing post categories (just look at code style, not logic):
function list_categories() {
// $html = '';
echo '<div class="post-categories post-items__categories">';
echo '<span class="post-categories__title">Categories:</span>';
echo '<ul class="post-categories__list">';
echo '<li class="post-categories__item"><a class="post-categories__link">All categories</a></li>';
$categories = get_categories([
'taxonomy' => 'category',
'type' => 'post',
'orderby' => 'name',
'order' => 'DESC',
'hierarchical' => false,
]);
foreach ($categories as $category) {
$cat_class = ($category->term_id == get_queried_object_id()) ? 'active' : '';
echo '<li class="post-categories__item">
<a class="post-categories__link" href="'.get_category_link($category->term_id).'">'.
$category->name.
'</a>
</li>';
}
echo '</ul></div>';
}
And I want my tag echoing expressions to be more readable, not just in one line like here:
echo '<li class="post-categories__item"><a class="post-categories__link">All categories</a></li>';
I'm using new lines in foreach loop, but it's still ugly.
I found out about heredoc syntax, but I can't call functions inside it.
How do you write this kind of things? I really don't want to write all in one line

Answer 1

If you just need to echo HTML why not break out of PHP, then back into it so
function list_categories() {
// $html = '';
echo '<div class="post-categories post-items__categories">';
echo '<span class="post-categories__title">Categories:</span>';
echo '<ul class="post-categories__list">';
echo '<li class="post-categories__item"><a class="post-categories__link">All categories</a></li>';
$categories = get_categories([....
becomes...
function list_categories() {
// $html = '';
//break out of php
?>
<div class="post-categories post-items__categories">
<span class="post-categories__title">Categories:</span>
<ul class="post-categories__list">
<li class="post-categories__item"><a class="post-categories__link">All categories</a></li>
<!--carry on with php-->
<?php
$categories = get_categories([....
And if you need to call a variable in the middle of html code you can like so..
<?php $demo = "hello"; ?>
<span><?php echo $demo; ?> World</span>
HTML in a variable...
<?php $html = ' ?>
<!--HTML HERE-->
<?php '; ?>