Difference between echo,print and printf statements
Difference between echo,print and printf statements
For printing out strings, there are echo, print and printf Statements are used.
echo
- It output one or more strings
Syntax:
echo ( string arg1 [, string argn…])
print
- It output a string
Syntax:
print ( string arg)
It returns TRUE on success, FALSE on failure.
printf
- It output a formatted string
Syntax:
void printf ( string format [, mixed args])
Differences:
echo is the most primitive of them, and just outputs the contents following the construct to the screen. print is also a construct (so parentheses are optional when calling it), but it returns TRUE on successful output and FALSE if it was unable to print out the string.
However, you can pass multiple parameters to echo, like: <?php echo ‘Welcome ‘, ‘to’, ‘ ‘, ‘All!’; ?> and it will output the string “Welcome to All!”
print does not take multiple parameters. It is also generally argued that echo is faster, but usually the speed advantage is negligible, and might not be there for future versions of PHP.
printf is a function, not a construct, and allows such advantages as formatted output, but it’s the slowest way to print out data out of echo, print and printf
