is there any significant difference in these 3 different applications of php - php

Question

I am trying to improve on my programming theory and in a previous question it was pointed out to me that I should not use multi-line ehcos in my programming as show in the first example. I use this because once it is complied it automatically minimizes the out put html. Which of the there examples below is the best practice for making use of php and why?
1)
echo '<div class="row cf">';
echo '<div class="col_8 cf alpha">'.$page_title.'</div>';
echo '<div class="col_4 cf omega right">';
echo '<a href="'.$table_url.'-action.php?action=add" class="button blue">';
echo '<i class="icon-plus-sign"> </i> Add a Site</a>';
echo '</div>';
echo '</div><hr>';
2)
echo '
<div class="row cf">
<div class="col_8 cf alpha">'.$page_title.'</div>
<div class="col_4 cf omega right">
<a href="'.$table_url.'-action.php?action=add" class="button blue">
<i class="icon-plus-sign"> </i> Add a Site</a>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
';
3)
<div class="row cf">
<div class="col_8 cf alpha"><?php echo $page_title; ?></div>
<div class="col_4 cf omega right">
<a href="<?php echo $table_url; ?>-action.php?action=add" class="button blue">
<i class="icon-plus-sign"> </i> Add a Site</a>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
Thanks.... Pete

Answer 1

There is significant difference. The first one is especially hard to maintain. The second is a bit better, but still inconvenient.
The third one allows you to write plain HTML without the need of escaping anything. You only briefly open PHP tags to insert variables. This HTML is also property syntax-highlighted if you got a smart editor like Netbeans or even Notepad++.
So I would choose the third one, except maybe when I insert a very tiny piece of HTML.
If I may suggest a small improvement:
<?php echo $x; ?>
can also be written as
<?= $x ?>
In case of performance, I think there won't be much difference. I would guess that the third one is faster, since it needs to parse and execute smaller pieces of PHP. In the other ones the strings need to be parsed as well to check for special characters.
That said, I doubt if you would be able to measure any difference at all, and it shouldn't be your concern. Choose the one you like best. For optimization, you'd better find real bottle necks, which are ususally found in the area of executing too many, too complex, or poorly optimized database queries.

Answer 2

I prefer solution 3 for two reasons:
My IDE (notepad++) will actually syntax highlight the HTML and the PHP and not just colour it the "string colour". I also do not have to escape ''s in the HTML by changing it to \' every time I use it.