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php · level 1 · unit 4 · lesson 2

  1. meet it
  2. guess first
  3. your turn
  4. fix it
  5. nailed it

Tap a green word if you get lost.

meet it

is the other path at the fork.

An if on its own either runs its block or skips it. Often you want a plan B. else means otherwise: when the condition is false, PHP runs the block after else instead.

At a fork you always take exactly one path. With if and else, exactly one block runs. Never both, and never neither.

else comes straight after the closing } of the if. It has no condition of its own, because it catches everything the if did not.

<?php
$biscuits = 0;
if ($biscuits === 0) {
    echo "Time to go to the shop.\n";
} else {
    echo "Have a biscuit!\n";
}

Read else as otherwise.