PHP - echo and print statements

There are two ways of displaying output in PHP: using echo and print statements. These two statements are almost same with some minor differences that are listed below.

Difference between echo and print statements

• echo doesn't return any value while print returns value of 1. Therefore, print can be used in a expression.
• echo can take multiple parameters separated by comma , while print takes only one argument.
• echo is marginally faster than print.

PHP echo statement

The echo statement can be used with or without parenthesis - echo and echo().

Working with text

The example below illustrates how to use echo statement for displaying text.

<?php
echo "<h3>This is a HTML line.</h3>\n";
echo "Single parameter is used with echo statement.\n";
echo "Multiple ","parameters ", "are used with echo statement.\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

<h3>This is a HTML line.</h3>
Single parameter is used with echo statement.
Multiple parameters are used with echo statement.

Working with variables

In the example below, echo statement is used to display variables.

<?php
$x = 15;
$y = 10;  

echo "Value of x is ".$x." and Value of y is ".$y.".\n";

//another way to display the same
echo "Value of x is $x and Value of y is $y.\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Value of x is 15 and Value of y is 10.
Value of x is 15 and Value of y is 10.

PHP print statement

The print statement can also be used with or without parenthesis - print and print().

Working with text

The example below illustrates how to use print statement for displaying text.

<?php
print "<h3>This is a HTML line.</h3>\n";
print "Only single parameter can be used with print statement.\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

<h3>This is a HTML line.</h3>
Only single parameter can be used with print statement.

Working with variables

In the example below, print statement is used to display variables.

<?php
$x = 15;
$y = 10;  

print "Value of x is ".$x." and Value of y is ".$y.".\n";

//another way of displaying the same
print "Value of x is $x and Value of y is $y.\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Value of x is 15 and Value of y is 10.
Value of x is 15 and Value of y is 10.