else
(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
Often you'd want to execute a statement if a certain condition is met, and a different statement if the condition is not met. This is what else
is for. else
extends an if
statement to execute a statement in case the expression in the if
statement evaluates to false
. For example, the following code would display a is greater than b if $a is greater than $b, and a is NOT greater than b otherwise:
<?php if ($a > $b) { echo "a is greater than b"; } else { echo "a is NOT greater than b"; } ?>
else
statement is only executed if the
if
expression evaluated to
false
, and if there were any
elseif
expressions - only if they evaluated to
false
as well (see
elseif).
Note: Dangling else
In case of nested
if
-else
statements, anelse
is always associated with the nearestif
.Despite the indentation (which does not matter for PHP), the<?php $a = false; $b = true; if ($a) if ($b) echo "b"; else echo "c"; ?>else
is associated with theif ($b)
, so the example does not produce any output. While relying on this behavior is valid, it is recommended to avoid it by using curly braces to resolve potential ambiguities.
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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License v3.0 or later.
https://www.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.else.php