I don't understand the use of Curly Braces.

On p74 they are used with a foreach command.
On p75 they are used with an if statement.
On p82 they are used with a while statement.
On p118 they are used with a function.
On p131 they are nested:
     They are used with a for statement which is nested within a function, which also uses them.

Once you understand when they are required, how do you know where in the code they belong?

What function do they serve, are what are the rules on their placement within the code?


ABabb
Dallas TX

__________________
ABabb
Dallas TX

{} are used to show the start and end of what's called a statement block. For example if you write something like
if (a==b)
command1;
command2;
command3;
...how does PHP know which of command1,2 and 3 are only to be executed if the condition a==b is true? The answer is the {}. If you write:
if (a==b)
{
command1;
command2;
}
command3;
...that means execute command1 and 2 only if a==b, and always execute command3.

So {} are needed in any sort of language construct where PHP needs to know how many following lines of code are associated with a statement or condition.

If there are no {} following a statement like if, while, foreach then that means only the following line is subject to the condition.

To answer your other question about ==, I assume you're asking why its not just =. The answer is that = is the assignment operator, i.e. its used whenever you want to *assign* a value to a variable. == is a comparison operator, so you should use it whenever you want to *compare* values.

Thank you so much. Your explanation really helps, and this kind of in-depth explanation is not in the book.

I like the book, but it seems to really understand the code as against just typing it in to see if it works I have to ask more questions.

So I appreciate you and your colleagues out on this site. I think I can become competent if I can learn the language.

Bye for now,

ABabb
Dallas TX