Primary PHP Operator Syntax

As you begin to explore PHP further, it’s common to hear the expression “code is poetry.” In fact, properly written, clean PHP code has its own cadence, structure, rhythms and logical links. Just as musicians must master notes and then measures before writing a full composition, programmers must have a deeper understanding of operators in order to build out the underlying logic of their programs.  The elegance of PHP code is that you can accomplish quite a bit of resulting output with a smaller level of variable inputs, making your application easier to manage and update.

Operators are used to evaluate variables within your code and can perform operations such as calculation, comparative, definition and retrieval functions. Proper implementation of operators can ensure your application functions as you envision it should. One of the reasons PHP has become so popular and universally adopted is for the intuitive, logical nature of its operator structures. This guide provides an overview of the primary PHP operators and how their syntax can help you streamline app construction.

Display Operators

Basic display, or string, operators are used to define display parameters within PHP. These can be particularly useful when working with dynamic variables such as username, dates and other types of parameters. For example, if you wanted to welcome a user named “John” to your site you could use the following code:

$example_string = "Welcome";
$example_string2 = " John";
$new_string = $example_string . $example_string2;
echo $punctuation_string . ".";

Welcome John.

Calculation Operators

These operators are used to define basic arithmetic (mathematic) functions in the code, allowing you to do basic calculations with variables.  Using integrated PHP functions you can easily write code that can solve basic math problems:

$multiplication = 4 * 4;
echo "Multiply:  4 * 4 = ".$multiplication.”;

Multiply: 4 * 4 = 16

Definition Operators

Often times, you can make your code much cleaner by implementing variables and defining them in a single line rather than duplicating the value. This comes in particularly handy when you have to update a site with new code and can refer to the original line. For example suppose we are programming a game where a bonus power multiplies the user’s strength by 5: we can write a line of code that enables this transformation while making it easier to update the power level with a single variable adjustment:

$bonus = 5;
$multiplication = 4 * $bonus;
echo "Multiply Bonus Power:  4 * Power = ".$multiplication.”;

Multiply: 4 * 5 = 20

Comparative Operators

Often times, you’ll need to determine whether a given value meets certain conditional requirements within your web application. In these cases you’ll need a comparative operator to evaluate the relative value of difference variables. For example, if a user’s score is at a certain level L and a requirement is at level R, you can compare whether the given level is equal (==), not equal (!=), less than (<) or greater than a certain level (>). Nested within a condition statement, you can show the right dynamic content based upon a user’s profile.