Hello, budding PHP developers!
As you steadily progress through the foundations of PHP, we now approach a topic that forms the backbone of any programming language: Control Structures, specifically, conditional statements.
These structures allow your PHP scripts to make decisions and branch off in different directions based on conditions.
Ready to make your PHP code smarter and more responsive? Let’s go!
Deciphering PHP Conditional Statements
In PHP, the primary conditional statements we use are:
- if statement: Executes code if a specified condition is true.
if (condition) {
// code to be executed if condition is true
}
- if…else statement: Executes some code if the condition is true, and another code if the condition is false.
if (condition) {
// code to be executed if condition is true
} else {
// code to be executed if condition is false
}
- if…else if…else statement: Executes different codes for more than two conditions.
if (condition1) {
// code to be executed if condition1 is true
} else if (condition2) {
// code to be executed if condition2 is true
} else {
// code to be executed if neither condition is true
}
Exercise
It’s practice time! Using JDoodle’s PHP compiler, try the following:
- Declare an integer variable. Write an if statement to check if the number is positive. If true, echo out “The number is positive.”
- Enhance the above program with an else clause to print “The number is negative” if the number isn’t positive.
- Further, use the else if clause to handle an additional condition to check if the number is zero, printing out “The number is zero.”
Conclusion
Well done! By mastering conditional statements, you’ve taken another significant step in becoming a proficient PHP developer. With these tools, you can introduce decision-making and logical branching into your applications, making them dynamic and responsive.
Stay curious and eager, as more enlightening modules are on the horizon. Your PHP journey is just getting more thrilling!