how to set php variable to another variable when first one is empty then echo

Question

I am trying to create a title from page variables using this.

<?php if $page_title = $page_title ?: $page_name'  - Blah.com'; { ?>
<?php } else { ?>
<?php echo $page_title . " - Blah.com" ; ?>
<?php } ?>

When added to page, all I get is a blank page once I open it in a browser. Not sure if I am doing this right.

I want it to use the page_title variable and some text after it but if page_title is empty I want it to use the page_name instead. Can this be done with shorter code?

Thanks for any help

if statements require parenthesis around their expressions and you are using one equals for the expression which will assign, not compare the variable and most likely return true (if the value assigned is truthy). I guess a comparison there will always return true though because a variable is always equal to itself. Looks like you are confusing an if statement and a ternary. if(something is true){ /*do this*/} else {/*else do this*/} vs a ternary (something is true) ? /*do this*/ : /*else do this*/; — Jonathan Kuhn
– Jonathan Kuhn, Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 23:18

Justin Taddei · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-28 23:33:05Z

1

I think this is what you want:

<?php
  echo (isset($page_title)) ? $page_name . ' - Blah.com' : $page_title . ' - Blah.com' ;
?>

PHP ternary operator syntax is as follows:

$variable = condition ? if true : if false

edited Feb 28, 2017 at 23:33

answered Feb 28, 2017 at 23:19

Justin Taddei

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2 Comments

aBe Over a year ago

i had to switch it around but worked perfectly. echo (empty($page_title)) ? $page_name . ' - Blah.com' : $page_title . ' - Blah.com' ;

Justin Taddei Over a year ago

That was a typo on my part. I updated the answer accordingly.

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