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WordPress PHP for WordPress PHP Basics for WordPress The Loop

Posted by ilanaguttman
ilanaguttman
2,700 Points

I don't understand the colon inside the loop

I don't understand how the sections connect to each other. Like "while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();" I don't see where it finds the connecting colon further down in the code.

2 Answers

Genevieve Herres
PLUS
Genevieve Herres
Courses Plus Student 3,457 Points
Genevieve Herres
Genevieve Herres
Courses Plus Student 3,457 Points

This is actually a PHP structure. In PHP you can have your while loop enclosed with curly braces or using colon and endwhile. Both are completely legal.

Example with curly braces: while ( have_posts) { the_post(); //more code }

Example with colon and endwhile: while ( have_posts) : the_post(); // more code endwhile;

The fact that while ( have_posts) : the_post(); is all on the same line is just shorting of the code. PHP isn't very picky about whitespace.

For more information, see the PHP manual: http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.while.php

Liam Maclachlan
Liam Maclachlan
22,805 Points
Liam Maclachlan
Liam Maclachlan
22,805 Points

To add to this (and slightly off topic), you can also omit the colon or curly braces completely if you are own running a single line of code, or another conditional, in the conditional. Some examples:

<?php

// simple single line example 
if ( true )
    return true;

// also works without the dropped line
if ( true ) return true;

// simple single line conditionals example with else
if ( true )
    echo 'got it';
else 
    echo 'not got it';

// single line foreach with multiline if statement
foreach ( $items as $array )
    if ( in_array( 'needle', $array ) ) :
        // do lots of stuff here
        $var = 'string';
        $var .= ' with more attached';
        echo $var;
    endif;
?>
ilanaguttman
ilanaguttman
2,700 Points
ilanaguttman
ilanaguttman
2,700 Points

Ohhhh, I see! It's in place of the curly braces. Thanks!