PHP Basic Notation..Probably?

[ChuckB]

Hello..I'm coming from JavaScript and just learning PHP..

I've never seen this kind of notation before:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

..where they use " : "...

I'm thinking that this still reads, if have_post() is true (with the function specifics having an array of values that are probably returned), while there is an iteration of values returned, do function (the_post())...?

If this is the case then, where does the ":" come in?...I didn't see this kind of notation in my PHP book...

by the way...this is a line from the Wordpress platform...

[NogDog]

Looks like they're using the alternate syntax for control structures. While there is nothing "wrong" with that, I'm not a big fan of it since the vast majority of PHP coders use the curly brace syntax, plus I generally frown upon merging multiple statements into one line both for readability and debugging reasons.

[ChuckB]

Looks like they're using the alternate syntax for control structures. While there is nothing "wrong" with that, I'm not a big fan of it since the vast majority of PHP coders use the curly brace syntax, plus I generally frown upon merging multiple statements into one line both for readability and debugging reasons.

alright..appreciate it...I figured it was just structured differently but read the same...