Is there any line continuation character (& _) available in PHP? - php

Question

I am dealing with long queries in PHP, so that I need to write it on multiple lines, but I don't know if their any line continuation character is available in PHP.
I used the same in VB.NET as furnished below:
sql = "SELECT stoks,srate,prate,taxp," & _
"iname,suplier,icod FROM stock where iname='" & item_name.Text & "'" & _
"and suplier ='" & suplier.Text & " '"
Is there any similar operation available in PHP, for denoting line continuation?

Answer 1

In PHP, once you don't close the quotation, you can write your code on multiple lines. Example:
$sql = "select stoks,srate,prate,taxp,
iname,suplier,icod from stock where iname='".$item_name."'
AND suplier ='".$suplier." '";
mysql_query($sql);

Answer 2

PHP is different from the various versions of VB in that it uses a line termination character. (http://php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.instruction-separation.php) As such there is no line continuation character required. Your long strings can just continue from line to line with no need to close the quotation.
$sql = "select stoks,srate,prate,taxp,
iname,suplier,icod from stock where iname='".$item_name."'
AND suplier ='".$suplier." '";
Or you can close the quotation block and connect it to another one using the period concatenation operator "."
$sql = "select stoks,srate,prate,taxp," .
"iname,suplier,icod from stock where iname='" . $item_name . "'" .
" AND suplier ='" . $suplier . " '";
A third way to accomplish the same goal is to use the concatenation assignment operator. (http://php.net/manual/en/language.operators.string.php)
$sql = "select stoks,srate,prate,taxp,";
$sql .= "iname,suplier,icod from stock where iname='".$item_name."'";
$sql .= " AND suplier ='".$suplier." '";
There are other ways to accomplish the same idea, but these seem to be the most popular.

Answer 3

PHP doesn't require it, but you can also concatenate strings in a similar fashion:
$myString = "Hello my name is john I am a super cool dude that likes cheese" .
"I also like milk" .
"I also like the number 8";

Answer 4

Current answers explain how to continue a concatenation. But what about any other expression, like a + b + c + ... ;?
You can use parenthesis to achieve expression continuation (which includes the concatenation). So, you can write expressions like:
# A chain of conditions
$apply = (
$condition1
&& $condition2
&& $conditionn);
# your example sql expression
$sql = (
"select stoks,srate,prate,taxp,"
. "iname,suplier,icod from stock where iname='"
. item_name.Text
. "'"
. "and suplier ='"
. suplier.Text
. " '");

Answer 5

Another solution is to use output buffering, you can collect everything that is being outputted/echoed and store it in a variable.
line1
line2
line3<?php
$xml = ob_get_clean();
Please note that output buffering might not be the best solution in terms of performance and code cleanliness for this exact case but worth leaving it here for reference.