Php Echo vs Print

PHP: Difference between echo and print

Going over some PHP code I noticed that echo and print were being used [almost] interchangeably.

Another difference is that while echo can take multiple parameters, print only takes one.

echo "Output is one, ", "two", "three";
print("Single argument");

echo does not behave like a function

Whilst both echo and print are language constructs, echo does not behave like a function. You don't need to use parentheses with either of them, and, most of the time you can use them interchangeably.

$condition = TRUE;
($condition) ? print "true" : print "false";
true
$condition = TRUE;
($condition) ? echo "true" : echo "false";
//PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected 'echo' (T_ECHO)

To make it work with echo we just have to update the statement to:

$condition = TRUE;
echo $condition ? "true" : "true";
//PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected 'echo' (T_ECHO)

This might seem a little bit contrieved, but it's only an example. A situation where I like to take advantage of the fact that print behaves as a function:

//Usually quick debug fix
myMethod() AND print('myMethod: OK') OR print('myMethod: KO'.generateError());

echo is faster

Since print does return something is a little bit slower than echo but not worth taking into account. Really.