What's the difference between echo, print, and print_r in PHP?

The difference between echo, print, print_r and var_dump is very simple.

echo

echo is actually not a function but a language construct which is used to print output. It is marginally faster than the print.

echo "Hello World";    // this will print Hello World
echo "Hello ","World"; // Multiple arguments - this will print Hello World

$var_1=55;
echo "$var_1";               // this will print 55
echo "var_1=".$var_1;        // this will print var_1=55
echo 45+$var_1;              // this will print 100

$var_2="PHP";
echo "$var_2";                   // this will print PHP

$var_3=array(99,98,97)           // Arrays are not possible with echo (loop or index  value required)
$var_4=array("P"=>"3","J"=>"4"); // Arrays are not possible with echo (loop or index  value required)

You can also use echo statement with or without parenthese

echo ("Hello World");   // this will print Hello World

print

Just like echo construct print is also a language construct and not a real function. The differences between echo and print is that print only accepts a single argument and print always returns 1. Whereas echo has no return value. So print statement can be used in expressions.

print "Hello World";    // this will print Hello World
print "Hello ","World"; // Multiple arguments - NOT POSSIBLE with print
$var_1=55;
print "$var_1";               // this will print 55
print "var_1=".$var_1;        // this will print var_1=55
print 45+$var_1;              // this will print 100

$var_2="PHP";
print "$var_2";                   // this will print PHP

$var_3=array(99,98,97)           // Arrays are not possible with print (loop or index  value required)
$var_4=array("P"=>"3","J"=>"4"); // Arrays are not possible with print (loop or index  value required)

Just like echo, print can be used with or without parentheses.

print ("Hello World");   // this will print Hello World

print_r

The print_r() function is used to print human-readable information about a variable. If the argument is an array, print_r() function prints its keys and elements (same for objects).

print_r ("Hello World");    // this will print Hello World

$var_1=55;
print_r ("$var_1");               // this will print 55
print_r ("var_1=".$var_1);        // this will print var_1=55
print_r (45+$var_1);              // this will print 100

$var_2="PHP";
print_r ("$var_2");                // this will print PHP

$var_3=array(99,98,97)             // this will print Array ( [0] => 1 [1] => 2 [2] => 3 ) 
$var_4=array("P"=>"3","J"=>"4");   // this will print  Array ( [P] => 3 [J] => 4 ) 

var_dump

var_dump function usually used for debugging and prints the information ( type and value) about a variable/array/object.

var_dump($var_1);     // this will print  int(5444) 
var_dump($var_2);     // this will print  string(5) "Hello" 
var_dump($var_3);     // this will print  array(3) { [0]=> int(1) [1]=> int(2) [2]=> int(3) } 
var_dump($var_4);     // this will print  array(2) { ["P"]=> string(1) "3" ["J"]=> string(1) "4" }

**Echocan accept multiple expressions while print cannot. The Print_r () PHP function is used to return an array in a human readable form. It is simply written as

![Print_r ($your_array)][1]