PHP out putting HTML, better way? - php

Question

Basically this is what I have:
<form method="POST" action="model.php">
<input type="hidden" name="from" value="edit">
<?php
include 'model.php';
$contactID = $_POST['editConRad'];
selectSingle($contactID);
echo "<input type='hidden' name='contactID' value='$contactID'>";
echo "<label>First Name:</label>";
echo "<input type="text" name="fname">";
echo "<label>Last Name:</label>";
echo "<input type="text" name="lname">";
echo "<label>Email:</label>";
echo "<input type="email" name="email">";
echo "<label>Street Address:</label>";
echo "<input type="text" name="streetaddress">";
echo "<label>City:</label>";
echo "<input type="text" name="city">";
echo "<label>Province:</label>";
echo "<input type="text" name="province">";
echo "<label>Postal Code:</label>";
echo "<input type="text" name="postalcode">";
echo "<label>Phone:</label>";
echo "<input type="number" name="phone">";
echo "<label>Date of Birth:</label>";
echo "<input type="date" name="yob">";
echo "<input type="submit" value="Submit Edit">";
?>
</form>
And I think there must be a better way to output html instead of having to output each line with echo, I thought there was a print function to do this but I couldnt find one.
Anyone have a better way of doing this? I know I could do one massive echo but there must still be something better.
I guess this way is better than what I have above but still not looking for a better way.
echo '<label>First Name:</label>.
<input type="text" name="fname">.
<label>Last Name:</label>.
<input type="text" name="lname">.
<label>Email:</label>.
<input type="email" name="email">.
<label>Street Address:</label>.
<input type="text" name="streetaddress">.
<label>City:</label>.
<input type="text" name="city">.
<label>Province:</label>.
<input type="text" name="province">.
<label>Postal Code:</label>.
<input type="text" name="postalcode">.
<label>Phone:</label>.
<input type="number" name="phone">.
<label>Date of Birth:</label>.
<input type="date" name="yob">.
<input type="submit" value="Submit Edit">';

Answer 1

You can switch between PHP and HTML whenever you wish just by adding the appropriate tags.
For example:
<?php
echo "This is output from an echo statement<br>"
?>
This is plain old HTML<br>
<?php
echo "And now we're back to PHP<br>"
Your form becomes:
<form method="POST" action="model.php">
<input type="hidden" name="from" value="edit">
<?php
// Do this bit in PHP
include 'model.php';
$contactID = $_POST['editConRad'];
selectSingle($contactID);
?>
<!-- Now switch back to HTML -->
<!-- PHP variable embedded here-------------|................| -->
<input type='hidden' name='contactID' value='<?= $contactID?>'>";
<label>First Name:</label>
<input type="text" name="fname">
<label>Last Name:</label>";
<input type="text" name="lname">
<label>Email:</label>
<input type="email" name="email">
<!-- and so on -->
</form>
<?php
// You can store long text strings in HEREDOC or NOWDOC syntax
$longString = <<<'EOT'
This is an arbitrarily long string, but this one is only short<br>
EOT
echo $longString;
See the PHP manual for all the details on how PHP handles strings, HEREDOC, NOWDOC, and the significance of single and double quotes.