<?php or <? Simple Question

Hi,

I've been running through a few tutorials and examples, and i've noticed that some use different methods to open their code blocks:

[B]<?php[/B]

//PHP Code

[B]?>[/B]

Code (markup):

Whereas some use:

[B]<?[/B]

//PHP Code

[B]?>[/B]

Code (markup):

Is there any difference, advantages or disadvantages?

 

stick with <?php

there are no advantages or disadvantages, but some settings on the server might not translate <? as an opening tag for php.

 

Yeah, you can't go wrong with <?php ..... ?>

<?....?> is known as a short tag and there is a possibility of some servers having an issue but then again, the vast majority of our sites running php scripts use <? and we have NEVER had a problem. I've never seen it as an issue in all my years and just about every hosting company are cool with it on their servers. (short_open_tag value to On in the PHP configuration file php.ini)

Incidently there are two other ways of enveloping php content:
<script language="php"> ---- </script>
and
<% ... %>


If you are writing php from scratch then definately use the <?php tag
BUT if you are considering rewriting an existing script becuase of concerns then there is not real need to do this.

 

Thanks for the info guys, it's appreciated.

 

<?....?> is almost the same as <?php ..... ?>, but <?php ..... ?> has advantage that it can be used on more platform

 

I agree <?php is just 3 more letters and it works on more platforms, no guessing.

 

<?php ?> can be used in more platforms ,dont be lazy it's all about 3 more letters

 

<?php ?> is always better.

 

I would join to already made opinion but also add that I have never came across hosting where <? ?> are set to be off
a lot of php-coders use <?=$var;?> instead of <?php echo $var; ?>

 

<?php=$var; ?> will also work
Anyway, when you program something, use <?php because some web servers won't support <? (like a default install with XAMP, but I would never use XAMP on public web servers).