Why this statement need in php - php

Question

How this statements named in php?
if($a)
$b = "Some";
I often meet in group projects this statement. And I do not like her because I do not understand how it works. So how it work? For example how php know where end this construction, coz {} is empty? When it is advantageous to use:
if($a)
$b = "Some";
Than:
if($a)
{
$b = "Some";
}
Sorry if the question is stupid. But I want to understand why this statement need without {}
Thanks

Answer 1

For single line statements you dont have to provide braces({}).
But for better readability and avoid any error, in case you might need to add multiple statements later, it is recommended to use block statments.
When you omit the braces it will only treat the next statement as body of the condition.
if ($x) echo 'foo';
is the same as
if ($x) { echo 'foo'; }
but remember that
if ($x)
echo 'foo';
echo 'bar';
will always print "bar"
Internally it's the other way around: if will only look at the next expression, but PHP treats everything in {} as a single "grouped" expression.
Same for the other control statements (foreach, and so on)

Answer 2

As mentioned before - its shorthand for a single if statement. Just some more infos:
if($a)
$b = "Some";
is the same as
if($a) {
$b = "Some";
}
But remember that
if($a)
$b = "Some";
$c = "More";
Is similar to
if($a) {
$b = "Some";
}
$c = "More";

Answer 3

The if statement executes the following statement if its condition is true. The following statement can either be a single statement, or it can be a group of statements grouped together with {}. You can use {} even without if, it just won't do much on its own.
// pretty useless, but valid
{
echo 'Foo';
echo 'Bar';
}
// valid, one statement following
if (true) echo 'Baz';
// valid, group of statements following
if (true) {
echo 'Foo';
echo 'Bar';
}

Answer 4

try it and test this code
$b = "testing";
if($b == "testing")
echo "This is if";
echo "This is another if";
echo "This is another";
echo "This is so on";
here I use only if so I don't need to define scope OR write braces in if condition I can use multiple messages, in below code I use else there is also no need to define scope OR braces. But in if there're multiple line of code some you'll confuse about your own code and also other programmers are.
$a = "test";
if($a == "test")
echo "This is if";
else
echo "This is else";
But for example if I create a if statement and it contains one line message in if body like upper code it'll work without any error BUT if I add one more line of code OR message in if body it'll return error
$a = "test";
if($a == "test")
echo "This is if";
echo "This is if 2";
else
echo "This is else";
so I've to use braces for if condition like this
$a = "test";
if($a == "test") {
echo "This is if";
echo "This is if 2";
} else
echo "This is else";
now it'll not return error because I use braces in if condition. Remember one line of code in if body will not return any error but second line of code in if condition will return error. Braces will define the scope of your if body as you can see in the third code I didn't use braces in else because it have one line of code OR message.

Answer 5

You will run into a nightmare of problems if there are multiple if statements. The above (without using braces) does work only for the first set of if statement.
Second thing would be if you add braces {....} , That would add the readability to your code and your code does look organized.

Answer 6

By definition the if statement reads only one statement after it. If you have many statements you should group them as one using {}