PHP -What does this mean......

[DaveL]

Im going through a few tutorials and was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me what ." means?

Ive tried google but not having much joy!

This is the context in which it is used -

$contents .=

Plus if anyone knows ofa webpage that lists all of these kind of expressions with their meaning it would be really appreciated. I seem to know the basic ones, but theres a few popping up im not to sure on.

 

[ragtek]

$var .= 'add me';

is the same as

$var = $var . 'add me';

you can do the same with + , -

hope this helps, (sorry, i don't know how this is called in english )

 

[James]

$var .= 'add me';
the period (or full stop) before the equals sign means to append it to the end of the variable (in this case, the $var variable).

See: http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.string.php

 

[DaveL]

Thank you both, got it now

 

[SheepCow]

You can use a lot of the operators like that, e.g.

$number += 5;
$number -= 5;
$number /= 2;

$text .= ', the end.';

For reference: http://php.net/manual/en/language.operators.string.php

 

[Jaxel]

Yeah... I always thought it was odd that PHP has a .= operator, but not a =.

 

[Daniel Thomann]

Yeah... I always thought it was odd that PHP has a .= operator, but not a =.

I think that is because the array association '=>'.. if you make it greater or same you have to make '>=' and eventually it cames from there.

 

[SheepCow]

I believe it's because in C if it was assignment (=) addition (+), it would have to be the same for other assignment-operation operators, and things like:

a =- 2;

The compiler wouldn't know if you mean "a equals minus 2" or "a subtract 2, assign to a" as whitespace has little meaning.