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What does the symbol : mean in PHP?

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  • 9
    Could you please post the code that it appears in? It could have different meanings, depending on the context. Commented May 25, 2010 at 20:05
  • 9
    When asking a questions please be specific. Oftentimes, this means giving a code example. Commented May 25, 2010 at 20:16
  • Scope Resolution Operator(:) php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.paamayim-nekudotayim.php Commented Nov 23, 2013 at 9:49

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PHP offers an alternative syntax for some of its control structures; namely, if, while, for, foreach, and switch. In each case, the basic form of the alternate syntax is to change the opening brace to a colon (:) and the closing brace to endif;, endwhile;, endfor;, endforeach;, or endswitch;, respectively.

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21

You also encounter : if you use the alternative syntax for control structures:

<?php if ($a == 5): echo "a equals 5"; echo "..."; elseif ($a == 6): echo "a equals 6"; echo "!!!"; else: echo "a is neither 5 nor 6"; endif; ?>

Or as already mentioned the ternary operator:

$action = (empty($_POST['action'])) ? 'default' : $_POST['action'];

(Examples taken from the documentation)

Edit: Somehow I didn't see that the alternative syntax was already mentioned, must be too tired ;) Anyway, I will leave it as it is, as I think an actual example and a link to the documentation is more helpful than just plain text.

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Third place would be the foreach ( $entry : $list) thing wouldnt it?
Could you please help me.I'm doubtful about the use of ' : ' in the following context ( Laravel ). ['email' => 'required|email|unique:email,users']
@Michel: I don’t know about Laravel, sorry. From PHP‘s perspective, : is part of a string so it has no special meaning.
9

I'm guessing you're seeing this syntax:

print ($item ? $item : '');

This is a short form of if/else. The ? is the if, and the : is the else.

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3

Shorter if statement:

$val = (condition) ? "condition is true" : "condition is false";
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1

As others have posted, you probably are looking at ternary logic.

However, if two of them are together, then it is the scope resolution operator, used for referencing status methods/properties and constants.

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1

It can mean a number of things. You may mean the ternary operator, ?:.

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