How to Use echo, print, and print_r in PHP

While working with PHP, every developer should know how to use <kbd class="highlighted">echo</kbd>, <kbd class="highlighted">print</kbd>, and <kbd class="highlighted">print_r</kbd>.

This snippet is dedicated to exploring these essential parts of the PHP programming language.

Using echo

PHP echo is considered a language construct and not a function. It is capable of accepting a list of arguments. Yet, it will not return any value.

You can’t use it as a variable function in PHP. However, you can apply it for displaying the output of parameters, passed to it.

The example of using PHP <kbd class="highlighted">echo</kbd> is illustrated below:

php echo usage

<?php
// PHP program for illustrating echo

// Declaring variables and initializing them.
$x = "W3docs ";
$y = "Computer science portal";

// Displaying the value of $x
echo $x, $y;

Check out the output:

W3docs Computer science portal

Using print

PHP <kbd class="highlighted">print</kbd> is not a real function, either. It is considered a language construct.

Yet, unlike echo, it always returns the value 1. It can easily be used as an expression. There is another difference between <kbd class="highlighted">echo</kbd> and <kbd class="highlighted">print</kbd>: print is capable of accepting a single argument at a time. You can’t use it as a variable function.

Also, the <kbd class="highlighted">print</kbd> construct is capable of returning merely strings.

For a better perception, take a look at the example below:

php print usage example

<?php
// PHP program for illustrating print

// Declaring a variable and initializing it.
$x = "W3docs";

// Displaying the value of $x
print $x;

The output will be:

W3docs

Using print_r()

PHP <kbd class="highlighted">print_r()</kbd> is considered a regular function. It is capable of outputting detailed information about a parameter in a human-understandable format.

The <kbd class="highlighted">print_r()</kbd> function is handy for detecting glitches in the process of the program execution. It is more similar to <kbd class="highlighted">var_dump()</kbd>.

Let’s check out an example of using <kbd class="highlighted">print_r()</kbd>:

php print_r() usage

<?php
// PHP program for illustrating print_r

// Declaring an array
$arr = [
  '0' => "W3docs",
  '1' => "Computer",
  '2' => "Science",
  '3' => "Portal",
];

// Displaying the value of $arr
print_r($arr);

The output will look as follows:

Array
(
    [0] => W3docs
    [1] => Computer
    [2] => Science
    [3] => Portal
)

In this snippet, we have shown you the proper ways to use <kbd class="highlighted">echo</kbd>, <kbd class="highlighted">print</kbd>, and <kbd class="highlighted">print_r()</kbd> in PHP. You can use them in your daily programming practice to improve the quality of your work.