PHP echoing '<<<'

Question

I want to echo some HTML from PHP that contains a link that has the text '<<< Back' on it. I can't get the '<<<' to display properly.

Anybody have any ideas? This is my current code:

  $paginationDisplay .=  '&nbsp; <span class="paginationNumbersbn"> <a href="' . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '?pn=' . $previous . '"> '<<<'Back</a></span> ';

Answer 1

If you want to display a literal less-than sign, encode it as < as per the HTML spec.

You might also want to look into another related entity: « . This produces a double left angle quote:

«

Answer 2

You don't need to escape it, as it has nothing to do with PHP.

Often websites just print out <, instead of using the appropriate HTML entity.

Try the following:

  $paginationDisplay .=  '&nbsp; <span class="paginationNumbersbn"> <a href="' . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '?pn=' . $previous . '"> &lt;&lt;&lt;Back</a></span> ';

Answer 3

$paginationDisplay .= '&nbsp; <span class="paginationNumbersbn"> <a href="' . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '?pn=' . $previous . '">&lt;&lt;&lt;Back</a></span>';

< = < > = >

You can use these and many other HTML entities to put symbols like this into your page.

Answer 4

It doesn't work properly because PHP attaches a special meaning to <<< called HEREDOC. You are better off encoding each < as < and then displaying it as the others suggested.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.syntax.heredoc