php operator <<<

Question

Possible Duplicate:
What is the name for the “<<<” operator?

I've just seen this code on this website:

PHP for Beginners: Building Your First Simple CMS

The code is:

private function buildDB() {
    $sql = <<<MySQL_QUERY
        CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS testDB (
            title       VARCHAR(150),
            bodytext    TEXT,
            created     VARCHAR(100)
    )
    MySQL_QUERY;

    return mysql_query($sql);
}

I've search high and low for this operand "<<<" but I can't seem to find the documentation anywhere!

If this operand is real I would like to know how it works because writing SQL queries like this makes code much more readable and would make SQL bugs simpler to find!

Might i add that i tried this code and got a compile error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in C:\Users\Alex Morley-Finch\Dropbox\Shared\Projects\htdocs\test\php\database.php on line 121

thankyou! i didnt realise it was a duplicate as i didnt know it was a called a HEREDOC! voting to close — AlexMorley-Finch, Dec 12 '11 at 15:07

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 12 '11 at 15:43

In the heredoc syntax, the last line (the one with the closing identifier) can't be indented, you have to do this:

<?php
       private function buildDB() {
$sql = <<<MySQL_QUERY
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS testDB (
     title       VARCHAR(150),
     bodytext    TEXT,
     created     VARCHAR(100)
)
MySQL_QUERY;

              return mysql_query($sql);
       }

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 12 '11 at 15:03

3

It's called a heredoc and you need to make sure that the ending line starts at the beginning of the line, so no:

    MySQL_QUERY;

but:

MySQL_QUERY;

edited Dec 12 '11 at 15:03

DaveRandom

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answered Dec 12 '11 at 15:01

jeroen

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 12 '11 at 15:03

1

<<< is a HEREDOC. You can read about it here. The most important thing to remember when using it is that the last line must not have any spaces.

answered Dec 12 '11 at 15:03

dnagirl

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php operator <<<

3 Answers3