How to add link within if-statement? - php

Question

I have some problems to put a URL-function within an if-statement properly. The following method works fine outside of my if-statement and the newly created link refers to this URL: "h**p://www.blog.com/?location=Bern&date=1"
<?php $rasp = $_GET["location"]; ?>
<a href="<?php echo preg_replace("/&date=(0|1|2|3)/", "", $_SERVER[\REQUEST_URI\])."&date=0"; ?> " >Heutel</a>
If-Statement works also just fine when I put simply an URL (e.g. https://www.google.com/) in between the quotation marks, then if I put the URL-function above in there, the newly created link refers to this: "h**p://www.blog.com/%3C?php%20echo%20preg_replace%28". Actually it should refer to the URL above "h**p://www.blog.com/?location=Bern&date=1"
URL-Function within if-statement:
<?php $url = 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
if (false !== strpos($url,'date=1')) { echo
'<?php $rasp = $_GET["location"]; ?>
<a href="<?php echo preg_replace("/&date=(0|1|2|3)/", "", $_SERVER[\REQUEST_URI\])."&date=0"; ?> " >Heutel</a> ' ;
} else {
echo 'No cars.';
} ?>
Any ideas?
Solution thanks to IMSop:
<?php
$url = 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
if (false !== strpos($url,'date=1')) {
?>
<a href="<?php echo preg_replace("/&date=(0|1|2|3)/", "", $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])."&date=0"; ?> " >Heutel</a>
<?php
}
else {
echo 'No cars.';
}

Answer 1

This sequence makes no sense:
echo '<a href="<?php echo ...
A quoted string and direct output outside the <?php ... ?> markers are completely different things. The ' starts a string, which will continue until you put another '; the <?php would start a block of PHP code if you weren't in one, but you already are - if you weren't the echo wouldn't mean anything.
To join multiple strings together, you can use the . ("concatenation") operator:
echo '>Heutel';
Alternatively, drop out of PHP mode like you were before, but with the if in place:
<?php
// In PHP mode...
$url = 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
if (false !== strpos($url,'date=1')) {
// Now leaving PHP mode, but still inside the if condition...
?>
<a href="<?php echo preg_replace("/&date=(0|1|2|3)/", "", $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])."&date=0"; ?> " >Heutel</a>
<?php
// Re-enter PHP mode to close off the if statement
}
There's even an alternative syntax for control syntax which some people prefer to use in cases like this:
<?php
if ($some_condition) :
?>
your output here
<?php
endif;
?>
which is exactly the same as
<?php
if ($some_condition) {
?>
your output here
<?php
}
?>