6. PHP Echo and Print

What you will learn

• How to output text with echo and print
• How to add line breaks and HTML
• How to inspect values with var_dump and print_r
• Why you must escape output

echo

echo sends text to the page. It is the most used output statement. It can take several values separated by commas.

<?php
echo "Hello";
echo " ";
echo "World", "!", " Many", " values";

print

print does almost the same job but takes one value and returns 1. In practice, use echo.

<?php
print "Printed with print";

Outputting HTML

The output is sent to the browser, so you can include HTML tags.

<?php
$name = "Sam";

echo "<h2>Hello, " . $name . "</h2>";
echo "<p>Welcome to the site.</p>";

Line breaks

A line break typed in PHP (\n) appears only in the page source. The browser shows it as a space. To break a line on screen, output <br> or use paragraphs.

<?php
echo "Line one\n";
echo "Line two<br>";
echo "Line three";

The built-in function nl2br() turns each \n in a string into <br>.

Quotes and escaping

<?php
echo "She said \"hi\". ";
echo 'It\'s fine. ';
echo "It's also fine.";

A backslash lets you put a quote inside a string of the same quote type.

Heredoc for long text

A heredoc holds a long block of text that can contain variables and quotes freely.

<?php
$user = "Sam";

echo <<<HTML
<div class="card">
  <h2>Hello, $user</h2>
  <p>Thanks for visiting.</p>
</div>
HTML;

<div class="card">
  <h2>Hello, Sam</h2>
  <p>Thanks for visiting.</p>
</div>

Inspecting values while debugging

var_dump() shows a value together with its type. print_r() prints arrays in a readable form. Wrap them in <pre> so the layout survives in the browser.

<?php
$items = ["pen", "book"];

echo "<pre>";
var_dump(42);
var_dump("42");
var_dump(true);
print_r($items);
echo "</pre>";

int(42)
string(2) "42"
bool(true)
Array
(
    [0] => pen
    [1] => book
)

Remove these debugging lines before a page goes live.

Escape output: a security must

If you print text that came from a visitor, such as a name typed in a form, it may contain HTML or script. Printing it raw lets an attacker inject code into your page (cross-site scripting, or XSS). Always convert special characters first with htmlspecialchars().

<?php
$input = "<b>Sam</b>";

echo "Raw: " . $input . "<br>";
echo "Safe: " . htmlspecialchars($input, ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8");

The raw version ran the tags and made the text bold. The safe version shows them as plain characters. Make escaping on output a habit.

echo versus print

Common mistakes

• Expecting \n to make a new line on the page.
• Printing visitor input without htmlspecialchars().
• Forgetting the semicolon after echo.
• Using var_dump on a live page and leaving it there.
• Mixing quote types so the string ends early.

<?php
$comment = "I <3 PHP & HTML";

echo "<p>" . htmlspecialchars($comment, ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8") . "</p>";

Summary

• Use echo to output text and HTML.
• Use <br> for on-screen line breaks, and var_dump or print_r to debug.
• Always escape outside data with htmlspecialchars() before printing it.