mixing html code with php code

Question

I am trying to use tcpdf library to generate pdf. I have a php file which contains variables like name,company name etc. But for displaying the products I am passing the array to php. Now I want to display each element of array in a table row for that I have to write the php code but somehow I am having problem mixing PHP code with html code.Here is the part whihch contains the problem

    $html .= '<br><br>
              <table border="1" cellpadding="5">
                <tr>
                    <td colspan="3">Invoice # {invoice_ref_id}</td>            
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td><b>Product</b></td>
                    <td><b>Quantity</b></td>
                    <td align="right"><b>Amount (Rs.)</b></td>
                </tr>'.
                foreach($item as products): .'   //This part contains error
                <tr>
                    <td>'echo products['item']'</td>
                    <td>'echo products['quantity']'</td>
                    <td align="right">75</td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td colspan="3" align="right"><b>Total: 375</b></td>
                </tr>'
                endforeach;
             '</table>';

    $html .= '<br><br>Some more text can come here...';

Answer 1

You can't continue the html with a concatenation straight after the foreach. You have to do $html .= again.

This

</tr>'.
foreach($item as products): .'   //This part contains error
<tr>

should be this

</tr>';
foreach($item as products): $html .= '   //This part contains error
<tr>

The same goes at the end of the foreach:

</tr>';
endforeach;
$html .= '</table>';

Answer 2

You are doing it wrong way. This should work -

$html .= '<br><br>
              <table border="1" cellpadding="5">
                <tr>
                    <td colspan="3">Invoice # {invoice_ref_id}</td>            
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td><b>Product</b></td>
                    <td><b>Quantity</b></td>
                    <td align="right"><b>Amount (Rs.)</b></td>
                </tr>';
                foreach($item as products) {   //This part contains error
                $html .= '<tr>
                    <td>'. products['item']. '</td>
                    <td>'. products['quantity']. '</td>
                    <td align="right">75</td>
                    ........ ';
                }
$html .= '</table>';
$html .= '<br><br>Some more text can come here...';

Answer 3

thie right way of doing something like this

 $html .= '<br><br>
          <table border="1" cellpadding="5">
            <tr>
                <td colspan="3">Invoice # {invoice_ref_id}</td>            
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td><b>Product</b></td>
                <td><b>Quantity</b></td>
                <td align="right"><b>Amount (Rs.)</b></td>
            </tr>';
            foreach($item as products): 
             $html .='   //This part contains error
            <tr>
                <td>'echo products['item']'</td>
                <td>'echo products['quantity']'</td>
                <td align="right">75</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td colspan="3" align="right"><b>Total: 375</b></td>
            </tr>';

            endforeach;
       $html .=  '</table>';

$html .= '<br><br>Some more text can come here...';

Answer 4

Instead of concatenating your HTML in a string that you will then need to echo, I would go to something like this :

<br><br>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
    <tr>
        <td colspan="3">Invoice # {invoice_ref_id}</td>            
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td><b>Product</b></td>
        <td><b>Quantity</b></td>
        <td align="right"><b>Amount (Rs.)</b></td>
    </tr>
    <?php foreach($item as products){ ?>  
    <tr>
        <td><?php echo products['item'] ?></td>
        <td><?php echo products['quantity'] ?></td>
        <td align="right">75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td colspan="3" align="right"><b>Total: 375</b></td>
    </tr>
    <?php> } //ending the foreach ?>
</table>
<br><br>Some more text can come here...

Notice how even here HTML code is still correctly highlighted? It will probably be the same in your editor of choice. I find it much more readable, and you even avoid possible character escaping issues.

NOTE : I didn't fix your HTML, but there are several bad practices in it regarding semantics or even use of obsolete/deprecated tags. Here are a few:

• Don't use anything changing layout in your HTML, this is what CSS are for. For example, don't use border or cellpadding attributes on your table, use table {border: 1px solid #ccc;} (you can of course change color, that's an example) and table td {padding: 5px;} instead.
• Semantic best practices also imply not using <br> tag. Better define top or bottom margins to put some space between elements. (I must admit that's probably the only example where I value ease over semantic and sometimes use it myself though)
• <b> tag should be use only in very specific cases, cfr this article . In this specific case you can achieve the same effect (bold text) by using font-weight: bold on the desired cells, either by giving them a specific CSS class, either by targetting them with a CSS selector like for example : tr td:nth-child(3) {font-weight: bold;} }
• similarily, don't use align attribute, same thing, target the desired cell and use CSS property text-align: right; instead.