If called from within a function, the return() statement immediately ends execution of the current function, and returns its argument as the value of the function call. return() will also end the execution of an eval() statement or script file. If called from the global scope, then execution of the current script file is ended. […]

The declare construct is used to set execution directives for a block of code. The syntax of declare is similar to the syntax of other flow control constructs: declare (directive) statement The directive section allows the behavior of the declare block to be set. Currently only two directives are recognized: the ticks directive (See below […]

The switch statement is similar to a series of IF statements on the same expression. In many occasions, you may want to compare the same variable (or expression) with many different values, and execute a different piece of code depending on which value it equals to. This is exactly what the switch statement is for. […]

continue is used within looping structures to skip the rest of the current loop iteration and continue execution at the condition evaluation and then the beginning of the next iteration. Note: Note that in PHP the switch statement is considered a looping structure for the purposes of continue. continue accepts an optional numeric argument which […]

break ends execution of the current for, foreach, while, do-while or switch structure. break accepts an optional numeric argument which tells it how many nested enclosing structures are to be broken out of. <?php $arr = array(‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, ‘four’, ‘stop’, ‘five’); while (list(, $val) = each($arr)) { if ($val == ‘stop’) { break; /* […]

for loops are the most complex loops in PHP. They behave like their C counterparts. The syntax of a for loop is: for (expr1; expr2; expr3) statement The first expression (expr1) is evaluated (executed) once unconditionally at the beginning of the loop. In the beginning of each iteration, expr2 is evaluated. If it evaluates to […]

do-while loops are very similar to while loops, except the truth expression is checked at the end of each iteration instead of in the beginning. The main difference from regular while loops is that the first iteration of a do-while loop is guaranteed to run (the truth expression is only checked at the end of […]

while loops are the simplest type of loop in PHP. They behave just like their C counterparts. The basic form of a while statement is: while (expr) statement The meaning of a while statement is simple. It tells PHP to execute the nested statement(s) repeatedly, as long as the while expression evaluates to TRUE. The […]

PHP offers an alternative syntax for some of its control structures; namely, if, while, for, foreach, and switch. In each case, the basic form of the alternate syntax is to change the opening brace to a colon (:) and the closing brace to endif;, endwhile;, endfor;, endforeach;, or endswitch;, respectively. <?php if ($a == 5): […]