What's the difference between a string and a variable??

Maybe I'm missing something here, but they both look the same to me.

 

A string is a literal text string, i.e. 'Hello'.

A variable is something that stores data (per se) - it can store a string, int, float, class, etc.

 

So, what would something like "$hello" be called?

 

Oh joy, you used apostrophes...

If you meant

"$hello"

Code (markup):

thats a string.

If you meant

$hello

Code (markup):

that's a variable.

 

Yeah, using apostrophes there really makes it confusing trying to explain it. lol

To make this even more confusing, yes the first example is a string, but it's a string containing a variable. In PHP, if you put a variable in double quotes (meaning " and not ') then it gets treated as a variable and is substituted with its value.

$foo = "bar";
$foo is the variable, "bar" is its string value.

 

So, in your example, $foo is not a string, but a variable? I was thinking all this time that something that begain with a $ was a string. Sorry if I seem a little slow at this, I just want to learn this properly.

 

Strings: www.php.net/string
Variables: www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.basics.php

 

all strings are variables, but not all variables are strings =)

a simple analogy,
a variable is a Candy Jar
a string is a type of candy
an integer is a type candy too!

so you can put candy in the candy jar.

conclusion : you can put strings, integers, etc in variables

 

Not all strings are variables.

'Blah' is just a literal string, if it's not assigned to a variable, it ain't a variable.

Hence why $var = &'Blah'; doesn't work, it isn't a variable.

 

Yeah. Keeping fairuz.ismail's analogy going, not all candy has to be in the candy jar; there could be a piece of candy outside of the jar. I like making things confusing so back to what I was saying before about being able to have variables in a string, well, good luck putting a candy jar in a piece of candy!