Are PHP short tags acceptable to use

Question

Here s the information according to the official documentation      There are four different pairs of   opening and closing tags which can be   used in PHP  Two of those   lt  php   gt    and  lt script language  php  gt   lt  script gt     are always available  The other two   are short tags and ASP style tags  and   can be turned on and off from the   php ini configuration file  As such    while some people find short tags and   ASP style tags convenient  they are   less portable  and generally not   recommended    In my experience most servers do have short tags enabled  Typing   lt      is far more convenient than typing   lt  php echo    The programmers convenience is an important factor  so why are they not recommended

User · Answer

In case anyone s still paying attention to this    As of PHP 5 4 0 Alpha 1  lt    is always available     http   php net releases NEWS 5 4 0 alpha1 txt  So it looks like short tags are  a  acceptable and  b  here to stay  For now at least

User · Answer

No  and they re being phased out by PHP 6 so if you appreciate code longevity  simply don t use them or the  lt         gt  tags

User · Answer

As of 2019 I disagree with certain answers here  I recommend to use long tags   lt  php    code goes here      gt    or short echo tags   lt       code goes here      gt    Reason  They are recommended by the PSR-1 basic coding standard  Other short tags like  lt      code goes here      gt  are not recommended    The spec says      PHP code MUST use the long  tags or the short-echo    tags  it MUST NOT use the other tag variations

User · Answer

Let s face it  PHP is ugly as hell without short tags   You can enable them in a  htaccess file if you can t get to the php ini   php flag short open tag on

User · Answer

Short tag are alwayes available in php         So you do not need echo the first statement in your script  example        a  10       lt     a   10      echo  Hellow         echo  Hellow         gt    Suddenly you need to use for a single php script    then u can     use it       example    lt html gt   lt head gt   lt title gt  lt  title gt   lt  head gt     lt body gt   lt p gt hellow everybody lt    hi   gt  lt  p gt   lt p gt hellow everybody   lt  p gt    lt p gt hellow everybody   lt  p gt      lt  body gt   lt  html gt

User · Answer

IMHO people who use short tags often forget to escape whatever they re echoing  It would be nice to have a template engine that escapes by default  I believe Rob A wrote a quick hack to escape short tags in Zend Frameworks apps  If you like short tags because it makes PHP easier to read  Then might Smarty be a better option     myString escape    to me that looks better than    lt    htmlspecialchars  myString    gt

User · Answer

Short tags are acceptable to use in cases where you are certain the server will support it and that your developers will understand it  Many servers do not support it  and many developers will understand it after seeing it once  I use full tags to ensure portability  since it s really not that bad    With that said  a friend of mine said this  in support of alternate standardized asp-style tags  like  lt   rather than  lt    which is a setting in php ini called asp tags  Here is his reasoning          arbitrary conventions should be   standardized  That is  any time we are   faced with a set of possibilities that   are all of equal value - such as what   weird punctuation our programming   language should use to demarcate   itself - we should pick one standard   way and stick with it  That way we   reduce the learning curve of all   languages  or whatever the things the   convention pertains to      Sounds good to me  but I don t think any of us can circle the wagons around this cause  In the meantime  I would stick to the full  lt  php

User · Answer

Because the confusion it can generate with XML declarations  Many people agree with you  though    An additional concern is the pain it d generate to code everything with short tags only to find out at the end that the final hosting server has them turned off

User · Answer

I m too fond of  lt    whatever  gt  to let it go  Never had a problem with it  I ll wait until it bites me in the ass  In all seriousness  85  of  my  clients have access to php ini in the rare occasion they are turned off  The other 15  use mainstream hosting providers  and virtually all of them have them enabled  I love  em

User · Answer

Short tags are coming back thanks to Zend Framework pushing the  PHP as a template language  in their default MVC configuration  I don t see what the debate is about  most of the software you will produce during your lifetime will operate on a server you or your company will control  As long as you keep yourself consistent  there shouldn t be any problems   UPDATE  After doing quite a bit of work with Magento  which uses long form  As a result  I ve switched to the long form of    lt  php and  lt  php echo   over   lt   and  lt      Seems like a small amount of work to assure interoperability

User · Answer

Because the confusion it can generate with XML declarations  Many people agree with you  though    An additional concern is the pain it d generate to code everything with short tags only to find out at the end that the final hosting server has them turned off

User · Answer

Short tags are not turned on by default in some webservers  shared hosts  etc    so code portability becomes an issue if you need to move to one of these  Readability may be an issue for some  Many developers may find that  lt  php catches the eye as a more obvious marker of the beginning of a code block than  lt   when you scan a file  particularly if you re stuck with a code base with HTML and PHP tightly inter-woven

User · Answer

Starting with PHP 5 4  the echo shortcut is a separate issue from short tags  as the echo shortcut will always be enabled  It s a fact now    SVN Revision by Rasmus Lerdorf Mailing list discussion   So the echo shortcut itself   lt     is safe to use now

User · Answer

Short tags are not turned on by default in some webservers  shared hosts  etc    so code portability becomes an issue if you need to move to one of these  Readability may be an issue for some  Many developers may find that  lt  php catches the eye as a more obvious marker of the beginning of a code block than  lt   when you scan a file  particularly if you re stuck with a code base with HTML and PHP tightly inter-woven

User · Answer

3 tags are available in php    long-form tag that  lt  php    gt  no need to directive any configured short open tag that  lt     gt   available if short open tag option in php ini is on shorten tag  lt     since php 5 4 0 it is always available   from php 7 0 0 asp and script tag are removed

User · Answer

They re not recommended because it s a PITA if you ever have to move your code to a server where it s not supported  and you can t enable it   As you say  lots of shared hosts do support shorttags but  lots  isn t all of them  If you want to share your scripts  it s best to use the full syntax   I agree that  lt   and  lt    are easier on programmers than  lt  php and  lt  php echo but it is possible to do a bulk find-and-replace as long as you use the same form each time  and don t chuck in spaces  eg   lt   php or  lt       I don t buy readability as a reason at all  Most serious developers have the option of syntax highlighting available to them   As ThiefMaster mentions in the comments  as of PHP 5 4   lt          gt  tags are supported everywhere  regardless of shorttags settings  This should mean they re safe to use in portable code but that does mean there s then a dependency on PHP 5 4   If you want to support pre-5 4 and can t guarantee shorttags  you ll still need to use  lt  php echo       gt    Also  you need to know that ASP tags  lt           lt      and script tag  are removed from PHP 7  So if you would like to support long-term portable code and would like switching to the most modern tools consider changing that parts of code

User · Answer

No  and they re being phased out by PHP 6 so if you appreciate code longevity  simply don t use them or the  lt         gt  tags

User · Answer

http   uk3 php net manual en language basic-syntax phpmode php has plenty of advice  including      while some people find short tags and   ASP style tags convenient  they are   less portable  and generally not   recommended    and     note that if you are embedding PHP   within XML or XHTML you will need to   use the  lt  php   gt  tags to remain   compliant with standards    and     Using short tags should be avoided   when developing applications or   libraries that are meant for   redistribution  or deployment on PHP   servers which are not under your   control  because short tags may not be   supported on the target server  For   portable  redistributable code  be   sure not to use short tags

User · Answer

Let s face it  PHP is ugly as hell without short tags   You can enable them in a  htaccess file if you can t get to the php ini   php flag short open tag on

User · Answer

IMHO people who use short tags often forget to escape whatever they re echoing  It would be nice to have a template engine that escapes by default  I believe Rob A wrote a quick hack to escape short tags in Zend Frameworks apps  If you like short tags because it makes PHP easier to read  Then might Smarty be a better option     myString escape    to me that looks better than    lt    htmlspecialchars  myString    gt

User · Answer

I m too fond of  lt    whatever  gt  to let it go  Never had a problem with it  I ll wait until it bites me in the ass  In all seriousness  85  of  my  clients have access to php ini in the rare occasion they are turned off  The other 15  use mainstream hosting providers  and virtually all of them have them enabled  I love  em

User · Answer

Short tags are not turned on by default in some webservers  shared hosts  etc    so code portability becomes an issue if you need to move to one of these  Readability may be an issue for some  Many developers may find that  lt  php catches the eye as a more obvious marker of the beginning of a code block than  lt   when you scan a file  particularly if you re stuck with a code base with HTML and PHP tightly inter-woven

User · Answer

Note  Starting in PHP 5 4 the short tag   lt     is now always available

User · Answer

If you care about XSS then you should use  lt    htmlspecialchars        gt  most of the time  so a short tag doesn t make a big difference    Even if you shorten echo htmlspecialchars   to h    it s still a problem that you have to remember to add it almost every time  and trying to keep track which data is pre-escaped  which is unescaped-but-harmless only makes mistakes more likely    I use a templating engine that is secure by default and writes  lt  php tags for me

User · Answer

lt  php   gt  are much better to use since developers of this programming language has massively updated their core-language  You can see the difference between the short tags and long tags   Short tags will be highlighted as light red while the longer ones are highlighted darker   However  echoing something out  for example   lt    variable   gt  is fine  But prefer the longer tags   lt  php echo  variable   gt

User · Answer

http   uk3 php net manual en language basic-syntax phpmode php has plenty of advice  including      while some people find short tags and   ASP style tags convenient  they are   less portable  and generally not   recommended    and     note that if you are embedding PHP   within XML or XHTML you will need to   use the  lt  php   gt  tags to remain   compliant with standards    and     Using short tags should be avoided   when developing applications or   libraries that are meant for   redistribution  or deployment on PHP   servers which are not under your   control  because short tags may not be   supported on the target server  For   portable  redistributable code  be   sure not to use short tags

User · Answer

If you care about XSS then you should use  lt    htmlspecialchars        gt  most of the time  so a short tag doesn t make a big difference    Even if you shorten echo htmlspecialchars   to h    it s still a problem that you have to remember to add it almost every time  and trying to keep track which data is pre-escaped  which is unescaped-but-harmless only makes mistakes more likely    I use a templating engine that is secure by default and writes  lt  php tags for me

User · Answer

Because the confusion it can generate with XML declarations  Many people agree with you  though    An additional concern is the pain it d generate to code everything with short tags only to find out at the end that the final hosting server has them turned off

User · Answer

Following is the wonderful flow diagram of the same     Source  similiar question on Software Engineering Stack Exchange

User · Answer

Because the confusion it can generate with XML declarations  Many people agree with you  though    An additional concern is the pain it d generate to code everything with short tags only to find out at the end that the final hosting server has them turned off

User · Answer

Short tags are coming back thanks to Zend Framework pushing the  PHP as a template language  in their default MVC configuration  I don t see what the debate is about  most of the software you will produce during your lifetime will operate on a server you or your company will control  As long as you keep yourself consistent  there shouldn t be any problems   UPDATE  After doing quite a bit of work with Magento  which uses long form  As a result  I ve switched to the long form of    lt  php and  lt  php echo   over   lt   and  lt      Seems like a small amount of work to assure interoperability

User · Answer

I m too fond of  lt    whatever  gt  to let it go  Never had a problem with it  I ll wait until it bites me in the ass  In all seriousness  85  of  my  clients have access to php ini in the rare occasion they are turned off  The other 15  use mainstream hosting providers  and virtually all of them have them enabled  I love  em

User · Answer

In case anyone s still paying attention to this    As of PHP 5 4 0 Alpha 1  lt    is always available     http   php net releases NEWS 5 4 0 alpha1 txt  So it looks like short tags are  a  acceptable and  b  here to stay  For now at least

User · Answer

lt  php   gt  are much better to use since developers of this programming language has massively updated their core-language  You can see the difference between the short tags and long tags   Short tags will be highlighted as light red while the longer ones are highlighted darker   However  echoing something out  for example   lt    variable   gt  is fine  But prefer the longer tags   lt  php echo  variable   gt

User · Answer

I read this page after looking for information on the topic  and I feel that one major issue has not been mentioned  laziness vs  consistency  The  real  tags for PHP are  lt  php and   gt   Why  I don t really care  Why would you want to use something else when those are clearly for PHP   lt   and   gt  mean ASP to me  and  lt script       means Javascript  in most cases   So for consistency  fast learning  portability  and simplicity  why not stick to the standard   On the other hand I agree that short tags in templates  and ONLY in templates  seem useful  but the problem is that we ve just spent so much time discussing it here  that it would likely take a very long time to have actually wasted that much time typing the extra three characters of  php     While having many options is nice  it s not at all logical and it can cause problems  Imagine if every programming language allowed 4 or more types of tags  Javascript could be  lt JS or  lt  script      or  lt   or  lt   JS     would that be helpful  In the case of PHP the parsing order tends to be in favor of allowing these things  but the language is in many other ways not flexible  it throws notices or errors upon the slightest inconsistency  yet short tags are used often  And when short tags are used on a server that doesn t support them  it can take a very long time to figure out what is wrong since no error is given in some cases   Finally  I don t think that short tags are the problem here  there are only two logical types of PHP code blocks-- 1  regular PHP code  2  template echoes  For the former  I firmly believe that only  lt  php and   gt  should be allowed just to keep everything consistent and portable  For the latter  the  lt    var  gt  method is ugly  Why must it be like this  Why not add something much more logical   lt  php  var   gt  That would not do anything  and only in the most remote possibilities could it conflict with something   and that could easily replace the awkward  lt    syntax  Or if that s a problem  perhaps they could use  lt  php  var  gt  instead and not worry about inconsistencies   At the point where there are 4 options for open and close tags and the random addition of a special  echo  tag  PHP may as well have a  custom open close tags  flag in php ini or  htaccess  That way designers can choose the one they like best  But for obvious reasons that s overkill  So why allow 4  options

User · Answer

One has to ask what the point of using short tags is     Quicker to type    MDCore said         lt    is far more convenient than typing  lt  php echo     Yes  it is  You save having to type 7 characters   X times throughout your scripts     However  when a script takes an hour  or 10 hours  or more  to design  develop  and write  how relevant is the few seconds of time not typing those 7 chars here and there for the duration of the script     Compared to the potential for some core  or all  of you scripts not working if short tags are not turned on  or are on but an update or someone changing the ini file server config stops them working  other potentials     The small benefit you gain doesn t comes close to outweighing the severity of the potential problems  that is your site not working  or worse  only parts of it not working and thus a headache to resolve     Easier to read    This depends on familiarity  I ve always seen and used  lt  php echo  So while  lt    is not hard to read  it s not familiar to me and thus not easier to read     And with front end back end developer split  as with most companies  would a front end developer working on those templates be more familiar knowing  lt    is equal to  PHP open tag and echo   I would say most would be more comfortable with the more logical one  That is  a clear PHP open tag and then what is happening  echo  -  lt  php echo     Risk assessment Issue   entire site or core scripts fail to work   The potential of issue is very low   severity of outcome is very high   high risk    Conclusion    You save a few seconds here and there not having to type a few chars  but risk a lot for it  and also likely lose readability as a result     Front or back end coders familiar with  lt    are more likely to understand  lt  php echo  as they re standard PHP things - standard  lt  php open tag and very well known  echo    Even front end coders should know  echo  or they simply wont be working on any code served by a framework      Whereas the reverse is not as likely  someone is not likely to logically deduce that the equals sign on a PHP short tag is  echo

User · Answer

I read this page after looking for information on the topic  and I feel that one major issue has not been mentioned  laziness vs  consistency  The  real  tags for PHP are  lt  php and   gt   Why  I don t really care  Why would you want to use something else when those are clearly for PHP   lt   and   gt  mean ASP to me  and  lt script       means Javascript  in most cases   So for consistency  fast learning  portability  and simplicity  why not stick to the standard   On the other hand I agree that short tags in templates  and ONLY in templates  seem useful  but the problem is that we ve just spent so much time discussing it here  that it would likely take a very long time to have actually wasted that much time typing the extra three characters of  php     While having many options is nice  it s not at all logical and it can cause problems  Imagine if every programming language allowed 4 or more types of tags  Javascript could be  lt JS or  lt  script      or  lt   or  lt   JS     would that be helpful  In the case of PHP the parsing order tends to be in favor of allowing these things  but the language is in many other ways not flexible  it throws notices or errors upon the slightest inconsistency  yet short tags are used often  And when short tags are used on a server that doesn t support them  it can take a very long time to figure out what is wrong since no error is given in some cases   Finally  I don t think that short tags are the problem here  there are only two logical types of PHP code blocks-- 1  regular PHP code  2  template echoes  For the former  I firmly believe that only  lt  php and   gt  should be allowed just to keep everything consistent and portable  For the latter  the  lt    var  gt  method is ugly  Why must it be like this  Why not add something much more logical   lt  php  var   gt  That would not do anything  and only in the most remote possibilities could it conflict with something   and that could easily replace the awkward  lt    syntax  Or if that s a problem  perhaps they could use  lt  php  var  gt  instead and not worry about inconsistencies   At the point where there are 4 options for open and close tags and the random addition of a special  echo  tag  PHP may as well have a  custom open close tags  flag in php ini or  htaccess  That way designers can choose the one they like best  But for obvious reasons that s overkill  So why allow 4  options

User · Answer

lt   is disabled by default in newer versions  You can enable this like described Enabling Short Tags in PHP

User · Answer

Convert  lt    without a trailing space  to  lt  php  with a trailing space    find   -name    php  -print0   xargs -0 perl -pi -e  s  lt      php   xml mso     lt   php  g    Convert  lt    with a trailing space  to  lt  php  retaining the trailing space    find   -name    php  -print0   xargs -0 perl -pi -e  s  lt      lt   php  g

User · Answer

3 tags are available in php    long-form tag that  lt  php    gt  no need to directive any configured short open tag that  lt     gt   available if short open tag option in php ini is on shorten tag  lt     since php 5 4 0 it is always available   from php 7 0 0 asp and script tag are removed

User · Answer

Starting with PHP 5 4  the echo shortcut is a separate issue from short tags  as the echo shortcut will always be enabled  It s a fact now    SVN Revision by Rasmus Lerdorf Mailing list discussion   So the echo shortcut itself   lt     is safe to use now

User · Answer

The problem with this whole discussion lies in the use of PHP as a templating language  No one is arguing that  tags should be used in application source files   However PHP s embeddable syntax allows it to be used as a powerful template language  and templates should be as simple and readable as possible  Many have found it easier to use a much slower  add-on templating engine like Smarty  but for those purists among us who demand fast rendering and a pure code base  PHP is the only way to write templates   The ONLY valid argument AGAINST the use of short tags is that they aren t supported on all servers  Comments about conflicts with XML documents are ludicrous  because you probably shouldn t be mixing PHP and XML anyway  and if you are  you should be using PHP to output strings of text  Security should never be an issue  because if you re putting sensitive information like database access credentials inside of template files  well then  you ve got bigger issues   Now then  as to the issue of server support  admittedly one has to be aware of their target platform  If shared hosting is a likely target  then short tags should be avoided  But for many professional developers  such as myself   the client acknowledges  and indeed  depends on the fact  that we will be dictating the server requirements  Often I m responsible for setting up the server myself   And we NEVER work with a hosting provider that does not give us absolute control of the server configuration -- in such a case we could count on running to much more trouble than just losing short tag support  It just doesn t happen   So yes -- I agree that the use of short tags should be carefully weighed  But I also firmly believe that it should ALWAYS be an option  and that a developer who is aware of his environment should feel free to use them

User · Answer

No  and they re being phased out by PHP 6 so if you appreciate code longevity  simply don t use them or the  lt         gt  tags

User · Answer

Short tags are not turned on by default in some webservers  shared hosts  etc    so code portability becomes an issue if you need to move to one of these  Readability may be an issue for some  Many developers may find that  lt  php catches the eye as a more obvious marker of the beginning of a code block than  lt   when you scan a file  particularly if you re stuck with a code base with HTML and PHP tightly inter-woven

User · Answer

lt   is disabled by default in newer versions  You can enable this like described Enabling Short Tags in PHP

User · Answer

It s good to use them when you work with a MVC framework or CMS that have separate view files  It s fast  less code  not confusing for the designers  Just make sure your server configuration allows using them

User · Answer

I thought it worth mentioning that as of PHP 7    Short ASP PHP tags  lt         gt  are gone Short PHP tabs  lt         gt  are still available if short open tag is set to true  This is the default  Since PHP 5 4  Short Print tags  lt         gt  are always enabled  regardless of the short open tag setting    Good riddance to the first one  as it interfered with other languages   There is now no reason not to use the short print tags  apart from personal preference   Of course  if you   re writing code to be compatible with legacy versions of PHP 5  you will need to stick to the old rules  but remember that anything before PHP 5 6 is now unsupported   See  https   secure php net manual en language basic-syntax phptags php

User · Answer

They re not recommended because it s a PITA if you ever have to move your code to a server where it s not supported  and you can t enable it   As you say  lots of shared hosts do support shorttags but  lots  isn t all of them  If you want to share your scripts  it s best to use the full syntax   I agree that  lt   and  lt    are easier on programmers than  lt  php and  lt  php echo but it is possible to do a bulk find-and-replace as long as you use the same form each time  and don t chuck in spaces  eg   lt   php or  lt       I don t buy readability as a reason at all  Most serious developers have the option of syntax highlighting available to them   As ThiefMaster mentions in the comments  as of PHP 5 4   lt          gt  tags are supported everywhere  regardless of shorttags settings  This should mean they re safe to use in portable code but that does mean there s then a dependency on PHP 5 4   If you want to support pre-5 4 and can t guarantee shorttags  you ll still need to use  lt  php echo       gt    Also  you need to know that ASP tags  lt           lt      and script tag  are removed from PHP 7  So if you would like to support long-term portable code and would like switching to the most modern tools consider changing that parts of code

User · Answer

One situation that is a little different is when developing a CodeIgniter application  CodeIgniter seems to use the shorttags whenever PHP is being used in a template view  otherwise with models and controllers it always uses the long tags  It s not a hard and fast rule in the framework  but for the most part the framework and a lot of the source from other uses follows this convention   My two cents  If you never plan on running the code somewhere else  then use them if you want  I d rather not have to do a massive search and replace when I realize it was a dumb idea

User · Answer

Following is the wonderful flow diagram of the same     Source  similiar question on Software Engineering Stack Exchange

User · Answer

Convert  lt    without a trailing space  to  lt  php  with a trailing space    find   -name    php  -print0   xargs -0 perl -pi -e  s  lt      php   xml mso     lt   php  g    Convert  lt    with a trailing space  to  lt  php  retaining the trailing space    find   -name    php  -print0   xargs -0 perl -pi -e  s  lt      lt   php  g

User · Answer

Note  Starting in PHP 5 4 the short tag   lt     is now always available

User · Answer

As of 2019 I disagree with certain answers here  I recommend to use long tags   lt  php    code goes here      gt    or short echo tags   lt       code goes here      gt    Reason  They are recommended by the PSR-1 basic coding standard  Other short tags like  lt      code goes here      gt  are not recommended    The spec says      PHP code MUST use the long  tags or the short-echo    tags  it MUST NOT use the other tag variations

User · Answer

Short tags are coming back thanks to Zend Framework pushing the  PHP as a template language  in their default MVC configuration  I don t see what the debate is about  most of the software you will produce during your lifetime will operate on a server you or your company will control  As long as you keep yourself consistent  there shouldn t be any problems   UPDATE  After doing quite a bit of work with Magento  which uses long form  As a result  I ve switched to the long form of    lt  php and  lt  php echo   over   lt   and  lt      Seems like a small amount of work to assure interoperability

User · Answer

Short tags are coming back thanks to Zend Framework pushing the  PHP as a template language  in their default MVC configuration  I don t see what the debate is about  most of the software you will produce during your lifetime will operate on a server you or your company will control  As long as you keep yourself consistent  there shouldn t be any problems   UPDATE  After doing quite a bit of work with Magento  which uses long form  As a result  I ve switched to the long form of    lt  php and  lt  php echo   over   lt   and  lt      Seems like a small amount of work to assure interoperability

User · Answer

No  and they re being phased out by PHP 6 so if you appreciate code longevity  simply don t use them or the  lt         gt  tags

User · Answer

One situation that is a little different is when developing a CodeIgniter application  CodeIgniter seems to use the shorttags whenever PHP is being used in a template view  otherwise with models and controllers it always uses the long tags  It s not a hard and fast rule in the framework  but for the most part the framework and a lot of the source from other uses follows this convention   My two cents  If you never plan on running the code somewhere else  then use them if you want  I d rather not have to do a massive search and replace when I realize it was a dumb idea

User · Answer

One has to ask what the point of using short tags is     Quicker to type    MDCore said         lt    is far more convenient than typing  lt  php echo     Yes  it is  You save having to type 7 characters   X times throughout your scripts     However  when a script takes an hour  or 10 hours  or more  to design  develop  and write  how relevant is the few seconds of time not typing those 7 chars here and there for the duration of the script     Compared to the potential for some core  or all  of you scripts not working if short tags are not turned on  or are on but an update or someone changing the ini file server config stops them working  other potentials     The small benefit you gain doesn t comes close to outweighing the severity of the potential problems  that is your site not working  or worse  only parts of it not working and thus a headache to resolve     Easier to read    This depends on familiarity  I ve always seen and used  lt  php echo  So while  lt    is not hard to read  it s not familiar to me and thus not easier to read     And with front end back end developer split  as with most companies  would a front end developer working on those templates be more familiar knowing  lt    is equal to  PHP open tag and echo   I would say most would be more comfortable with the more logical one  That is  a clear PHP open tag and then what is happening  echo  -  lt  php echo     Risk assessment Issue   entire site or core scripts fail to work   The potential of issue is very low   severity of outcome is very high   high risk    Conclusion    You save a few seconds here and there not having to type a few chars  but risk a lot for it  and also likely lose readability as a result     Front or back end coders familiar with  lt    are more likely to understand  lt  php echo  as they re standard PHP things - standard  lt  php open tag and very well known  echo    Even front end coders should know  echo  or they simply wont be working on any code served by a framework      Whereas the reverse is not as likely  someone is not likely to logically deduce that the equals sign on a PHP short tag is  echo

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The problem with this whole discussion lies in the use of PHP as a templating language  No one is arguing that  tags should be used in application source files   However PHP s embeddable syntax allows it to be used as a powerful template language  and templates should be as simple and readable as possible  Many have found it easier to use a much slower  add-on templating engine like Smarty  but for those purists among us who demand fast rendering and a pure code base  PHP is the only way to write templates   The ONLY valid argument AGAINST the use of short tags is that they aren t supported on all servers  Comments about conflicts with XML documents are ludicrous  because you probably shouldn t be mixing PHP and XML anyway  and if you are  you should be using PHP to output strings of text  Security should never be an issue  because if you re putting sensitive information like database access credentials inside of template files  well then  you ve got bigger issues   Now then  as to the issue of server support  admittedly one has to be aware of their target platform  If shared hosting is a likely target  then short tags should be avoided  But for many professional developers  such as myself   the client acknowledges  and indeed  depends on the fact  that we will be dictating the server requirements  Often I m responsible for setting up the server myself   And we NEVER work with a hosting provider that does not give us absolute control of the server configuration -- in such a case we could count on running to much more trouble than just losing short tag support  It just doesn t happen   So yes -- I agree that the use of short tags should be carefully weighed  But I also firmly believe that it should ALWAYS be an option  and that a developer who is aware of his environment should feel free to use them

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Short tag are alwayes available in php         So you do not need echo the first statement in your script  example        a  10       lt     a   10      echo  Hellow         echo  Hellow         gt    Suddenly you need to use for a single php script    then u can     use it       example    lt html gt   lt head gt   lt title gt  lt  title gt   lt  head gt     lt body gt   lt p gt hellow everybody lt    hi   gt  lt  p gt   lt p gt hellow everybody   lt  p gt    lt p gt hellow everybody   lt  p gt      lt  body gt   lt  html gt

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One situation that is a little different is when developing a CodeIgniter application  CodeIgniter seems to use the shorttags whenever PHP is being used in a template view  otherwise with models and controllers it always uses the long tags  It s not a hard and fast rule in the framework  but for the most part the framework and a lot of the source from other uses follows this convention   My two cents  If you never plan on running the code somewhere else  then use them if you want  I d rather not have to do a massive search and replace when I realize it was a dumb idea

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One situation that is a little different is when developing a CodeIgniter application  CodeIgniter seems to use the shorttags whenever PHP is being used in a template view  otherwise with models and controllers it always uses the long tags  It s not a hard and fast rule in the framework  but for the most part the framework and a lot of the source from other uses follows this convention   My two cents  If you never plan on running the code somewhere else  then use them if you want  I d rather not have to do a massive search and replace when I realize it was a dumb idea

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If you care about XSS then you should use  lt    htmlspecialchars        gt  most of the time  so a short tag doesn t make a big difference    Even if you shorten echo htmlspecialchars   to h    it s still a problem that you have to remember to add it almost every time  and trying to keep track which data is pre-escaped  which is unescaped-but-harmless only makes mistakes more likely    I use a templating engine that is secure by default and writes  lt  php tags for me

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I m too fond of  lt    whatever  gt  to let it go  Never had a problem with it  I ll wait until it bites me in the ass  In all seriousness  85  of  my  clients have access to php ini in the rare occasion they are turned off  The other 15  use mainstream hosting providers  and virtually all of them have them enabled  I love  em

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It s good to use them when you work with a MVC framework or CMS that have separate view files  It s fast  less code  not confusing for the designers  Just make sure your server configuration allows using them

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To avoid portability issues  start PHP tags with  lt  php and in case your PHP file is purely PHP  no HTML  you don t need to use the closing tags

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Short tags are acceptable to use in cases where you are certain the server will support it and that your developers will understand it  Many servers do not support it  and many developers will understand it after seeing it once  I use full tags to ensure portability  since it s really not that bad    With that said  a friend of mine said this  in support of alternate standardized asp-style tags  like  lt   rather than  lt    which is a setting in php ini called asp tags  Here is his reasoning          arbitrary conventions should be   standardized  That is  any time we are   faced with a set of possibilities that   are all of equal value - such as what   weird punctuation our programming   language should use to demarcate   itself - we should pick one standard   way and stick with it  That way we   reduce the learning curve of all   languages  or whatever the things the   convention pertains to      Sounds good to me  but I don t think any of us can circle the wagons around this cause  In the meantime  I would stick to the full  lt  php

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If you care about XSS then you should use  lt    htmlspecialchars        gt  most of the time  so a short tag doesn t make a big difference    Even if you shorten echo htmlspecialchars   to h    it s still a problem that you have to remember to add it almost every time  and trying to keep track which data is pre-escaped  which is unescaped-but-harmless only makes mistakes more likely    I use a templating engine that is secure by default and writes  lt  php tags for me

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They re not recommended because it s a PITA if you ever have to move your code to a server where it s not supported  and you can t enable it   As you say  lots of shared hosts do support shorttags but  lots  isn t all of them  If you want to share your scripts  it s best to use the full syntax   I agree that  lt   and  lt    are easier on programmers than  lt  php and  lt  php echo but it is possible to do a bulk find-and-replace as long as you use the same form each time  and don t chuck in spaces  eg   lt   php or  lt       I don t buy readability as a reason at all  Most serious developers have the option of syntax highlighting available to them   As ThiefMaster mentions in the comments  as of PHP 5 4   lt          gt  tags are supported everywhere  regardless of shorttags settings  This should mean they re safe to use in portable code but that does mean there s then a dependency on PHP 5 4   If you want to support pre-5 4 and can t guarantee shorttags  you ll still need to use  lt  php echo       gt    Also  you need to know that ASP tags  lt           lt      and script tag  are removed from PHP 7  So if you would like to support long-term portable code and would like switching to the most modern tools consider changing that parts of code

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I thought it worth mentioning that as of PHP 7    Short ASP PHP tags  lt         gt  are gone Short PHP tabs  lt         gt  are still available if short open tag is set to true  This is the default  Since PHP 5 4  Short Print tags  lt         gt  are always enabled  regardless of the short open tag setting    Good riddance to the first one  as it interfered with other languages   There is now no reason not to use the short print tags  apart from personal preference   Of course  if you   re writing code to be compatible with legacy versions of PHP 5  you will need to stick to the old rules  but remember that anything before PHP 5 6 is now unsupported   See  https   secure php net manual en language basic-syntax phptags php

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They re not recommended because it s a PITA if you ever have to move your code to a server where it s not supported  and you can t enable it   As you say  lots of shared hosts do support shorttags but  lots  isn t all of them  If you want to share your scripts  it s best to use the full syntax   I agree that  lt   and  lt    are easier on programmers than  lt  php and  lt  php echo but it is possible to do a bulk find-and-replace as long as you use the same form each time  and don t chuck in spaces  eg   lt   php or  lt       I don t buy readability as a reason at all  Most serious developers have the option of syntax highlighting available to them   As ThiefMaster mentions in the comments  as of PHP 5 4   lt          gt  tags are supported everywhere  regardless of shorttags settings  This should mean they re safe to use in portable code but that does mean there s then a dependency on PHP 5 4   If you want to support pre-5 4 and can t guarantee shorttags  you ll still need to use  lt  php echo       gt    Also  you need to know that ASP tags  lt           lt      and script tag  are removed from PHP 7  So if you would like to support long-term portable code and would like switching to the most modern tools consider changing that parts of code

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To avoid portability issues  start PHP tags with  lt  php and in case your PHP file is purely PHP  no HTML  you don t need to use the closing tags

[php] Are PHP short tags acceptable to use?

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