Do you close your PHP tags?

[Young Twig]

Is there a standard?

Yeah. Your file should end with the closing PHP tag and a new line. I can understand the closing tag (which is logical), but that new line seems just ridiculous.

I close with a PHP tag and nothing more. That's like putting a space at the end of each line. I can't be bothered with all that extra work that triggers my OCD.

[shiflett]

Who came up with this stupid idea? A blank line at the end of the file pisses me off. That is a waste.

I agree that it seems unnecessary, but that's the convention. EOF is supposed to be on a line all by itself, not at the end of a line with meaningful data. This is a file convention and not specific to any particular language.

I'm not aware of any software that can't handle a file where EOF is at the end of a line, but you never know. I know some editors that add the newline but hide it from the interface (e.g., you can't highlight the newline before the EOF), so you might be following the convention without realizing it.

Anyway, what annoys me is that it seems trivial for PHP to strip a newline only when it encounters a closing PHP tag followed by a newline followed by EOF. As it is, all newlines following a closing PHP tag are stripped, and that just screws up my formatting. :-)

[Etnu]

I never close them anymore. One "headers already sent" too many pushed me over the edge.

[Etnu]

It's just plainly absurd not to use them ?!?!

"Why bother??", why bother writing good code at all? Why not forget about indenting, commenting, etc...

Writing GOOD code is about writing maintainable code. A lot of PHP programmers tend to forget this! Whereas for instance Java/C++ programmers are always 'aware' of what they are doing, a lot of PHP programmers just put stuff in their program untill it works and don't care about the correctness of their code..

In this case you would be wrong. The ability to leave off the closing tag is by design, intentional, and specifically exists to avoid problems with output (whitespace after the closing php tag) appearing when you don't want it. Leaving it off is neither "bad design" nor "unmaintainable".

Go through the internals list. This very topic was brought up within the last 90 days.

[AutisticCuckoo]

Now, find someone who calls functions as "function(arguments)" but if statements as "if (expression)" (with a space). That'll a little more rare.

I do that.

I always put a space between a language construct (like if, while, return) and a following expression.

[someonewhois]

Why would you open the tag either?

Because you have to open it to signify you're using PHP and not just directly outputting content. There's a huge difference. There's NO need to add the closing tag. It serves absolutely zero purpose.

If you've ever used CPanel, back in the day (over a year ago) the built-in text editor added ~10 new lines at the end of each file (I haven't used the editor in years, so I can't tell you whether they've fixed it or not since then) for no reason. If I were to have an include class that had a closing ?>, I would've run into errors when I went sending headers for previous output. I'm not saying this is why I don't use a ?>, I'm just saying that's a scenario where not having the ?> is actually beneficial.

same thing with c. why the hell do they need a blank line at the end of a file is beyond me.. i'm sure there is some reason for it though.

Heh... That brings up another point. According to PEAR standards, you should have a blank line at the end of all of your files (after that closing tag, of course ). I've also had a C++ compiler spit at me once when I didn't leave a blank line at the end of the file. (I never touched C++ again, by the way.)

Who came up with this stupid idea? A blank line at the end of the file pisses me off. That is a waste.

I've used Dev C++, Borland C++, GCC, and MSVC6 and I have NEVER had this warning come up. Now while I have never looked into a C compiler, I can give an educated guess that back in the 70s one of the inventors wrote their parser to read the file and for some reason had the parser stop when it came to a blank space, for whatever technological limitations. Some people (ie. the Visual Basic developers) think it's absolutely ridiculous that we use semicolons in C, PHP, etc., yet we do.

I seriously don't understand how you complain about hitting enter, but you willingly use the "?>". I really do not see how this is any different. It's part of the language, and according to you they're both 100% necessary.

It's just plainly absurd not to use them ?!?!

"Why bother??", why bother writing good code at all? Why not forget about indenting, commenting, etc...

Writing GOOD code is about writing maintainable code. A lot of PHP programmers tend to forget this! Whereas for instance Java/C++ programmers are always 'aware' of what they are doing, a lot of PHP programmers just put stuff in their program untill it works and don't care about the correctness of their code..

Once again, leaving off ?> had no functional implications. Not writing code at all does.

I hardly see how adding "?>" makes your code more maintainable. Leaving comments off, or indenting, makes the code harder to follow. Leaving a "?>" off at the end of the file will not send you into a circle of confusion. There's a severe difference between

[Young Twig]

Because you have to open it to signify you're using PHP and not just directly outputting content. There's a huge difference. There's NO need to add the closing tag. It serves absolutely zero purpose.

I know. You can't leave out the opening tag when including your class, so why leave out the closing one? I see it as uniformity.

I've used Dev C++, Borland C++, GCC, and MSVC6 and I have NEVER had this warning come up.

I don't remember what I used. But it wouldn't compile without that stupid blank line.

Some people (ie. the Visual Basic developers) think it's absolutely ridiculous that we use semicolons in C, PHP, etc., yet we do.

It allows for multiple-line statements, right? You can't pull any of that

Array
(
     0 => 5.2
     1 => 4.9
);

crap in Javascript.

I seriously don't understand how you complain about hitting enter, but you willingly use the "?>". I really do not see how this is any different. It's part of the language, and according to you they're both 100% necessary.

Honestly, I could care less about the coding format standards. I format my code in ways that make it easy for me (and maybe others) to read. I like things to make sense and be uniform (meaning I open and close PHP tags). I also format it in ways that I think look good. The blank line at the end of the file is, to me, ugly. It also triggers my OCD.

I do that.

I always put a space between a language construct (like if, while, return) and a following expression.

Nathan only puts it after if, though. While, for, and foreach all have no spaces before the parentheses.

[Jedi007]

you know if you dont close your php tags. the Nighthawks will hack you.
Oooooo!

Look how far this topic has gone...

[sweatje]

I never have the closing ?>

For pedantic people who miss their closure, I use

#?>

instead

The reason as others have mentioned is to prevent unintentional whitespace issues.

[Daijoubu]

What question is this, if you open your zipper, do you close it? OF COURSE I DO :P

[Lord Brar]

Old habits die hard... yes, I do close all the tags that I open.

[asp_funda]

I close it always, it can be termed as the bad habit of coming from the ASP & JSP background where you don't have that luxury(as far as I know)!!

Anyway, I guess I'm the only one who doesn't bother adding the ?>. It's always seemed like a waste.

for that statement, you deserve the "PHP Guru of the Year" award taken away from you!!

btw, you are not the only nutter who doesn't close PHP delimiters!! there are lot of perverts like you!!

Now, find someone who calls functions as "function(arguments)" but if statements as "if (expression)" (with a space). That'll a little more rare.

well, I do it vice versa. that is, I use "function (arguments)" & "if(condition)"!!

I never close them anymore. One "headers already sent" too many pushed me over the edge.

what's the closing delimiter got to do with it? it occurs because of a whitespace or a line after the closing delimiter!!

[My-Proxy]

Your code will confuse if you didn't use "?>" thought the function is correct.

[stereofrog]

And what about "cat one.php two.php > new.php"?

[cringer]

Just to be different, I close my PHP tags like this :

¿> 

[devil cat]

I always close my php pages with ?>. Never knew it was unnecessary until I went back and rewrote some of my old pages and saw that it was missing. Just about had an attack that I would forget something like that, before I realized it still worked.

But I still close them all that way.

[shiflett]

What's the closing delimiter got to do with it? It occurs because of a whitespace or a line after the closing delimiter!!

Actually, it doesn't occur because of a newline after a closing tag, because those are stripped.

In fact, this behavior (which I find annoying) supposedly exists so that people can end a file with a closing tag, newline, then EOF. I find it annoying that this one edge case interferes with every other use of a closing tag:

http://shiflett.org/archive/151

[Joel Farris]

I know. You can't leave out the opening tag when including your class, so why leave out the closing one? I see it as uniformity.

I look at it like a pair of bookends. If you place a bookend on the left-end of your bookshelf, the books wont fall off that side. BUT, it you fail to place a bookend on the right-end of your bookshelf, the code, err, books could fall off and break.

[sweatje]

I look at it like a pair of bookends. If you place a bookend on the left-end of your bookshelf, the books wont fall off that side. BUT, it you fail to place a bookend on the right-end of your bookshelf, the code, err, books could fall off and break.

Except the other side of the bookshelf butts up against a wall called EOF

[-Oz-]

i definitely close.

[dreamscape]

Although I always close my PHP blocks, there are many expert PHP developers who do not. It's not just a matter of being lazy - it's to avoid superfluous output that might be generated due to have whitespace between the closing PHP tags and the EOF

That is being lazy... too god damn lazy to take your finger off the return button. You only get header issues if you put whitespace after the closing ?>. Here is a bit of a tip: The whitespace doesn't magically put itself there. After you type the closing tag, then don't freakin' hit the return button more than once and you won't have whitespace issues. And if you are worried you might accidentally hit it twice, then don't flippin' hit it at all. That's what I do

If you don't want to use them then fine, but don't try to claim some pie in the sky reasoning to justify not being lazy, when that is exactly what you are being by not using them. [yeah you avoid whitespace issues, but only because you can't be bothered to remove your finger from a keyboard button].

[sweatje]

That is being lazy... too god damn lazy to take your finger off the return button. You only get header issues if you put whitespace after the closing ?>. Here is a bit of a tip: The whitespace doesn't magically put itself there. After you type the closing tag, then don't freakin' hit the return button more than once and you won't have whitespace issues. And if you are worried you might accidentally hit it twice, then don't flippin' hit it at all. That's what I do

If you don't want to use them then fine, but don't try to claim some pie in the sky reasoning to justify not being lazy, when that is exactly what you are being by not using them. [yeah you avoid whitespace issues, but only because you can't be bothered to remove your finger from a keyboard button].

The few times I encountered the issue, I attributed it to cut and paste issues rather than directly typing the closing tag, so I find your "too lazy to stop pressing the return key" argument a bit of melodramatic hyperbole.

[cringer]

Good lord! I thought this thread was a joke, but I guess it's real.

If controlling "white space" is such a big problem... try programming in a strongly typed language / platform that actually forces you to pay careful attention to detail.

[asp_funda]

Actually, it doesn't occur because of a newline after a closing tag, because those are stripped.

In fact, this behavior (which I find annoying) supposedly exists so that people can end a file with a closing tag, newline, then EOF. I find it annoying that this one edge case interferes with every other use of a closing tag:

http://shiflett.org/archive/151

well, that's quite strange, since I used to get the "headers already sent" error when there was a new line after any of the closing delimiters in any of my include files!! once I removed the blank lines after the closing delimiter, I stopped getting the error!!

[xmitchx]

well, that's quite strange, since I used to get the "headers already sent" error when there was a new line after any of the closing delimiters in any of my include files!! once I removed the blank lines after the closing delimiter, I stopped getting the error!!

Because you probably did something that required the headers not to be sent afte ryou included those files. A blank line will begin sending the HTTP 200 OK headers which is too late for cookies and such.

Just rmeove the lines after your closing tag and it'd be fine.