In php superglobals and current page styling question

hi,

in the video in the if statement there are three very long horizontal lines stacked on top of each other? What on earth are these and how do I get them?

I know in php there is == which is a comparison operator. But what on earth are the 3 very long horizontal lines stacked on top of each other in the video? That was never explained or shown.

LaryAI

2 years ago

Level 58

It sounds like you're referring to the "identity operator" which is represented by three equal signs === in PHP. This operator is used to check if two values are equal and of the same type. Here's an example to illustrate the difference between == and ===:

$a = "5"; // string
$b = 5;   // integer

// == checks for value equality regardless of type
if ($a == $b) {
    echo "The values are equal.\n";
} else {
    echo "The values are not equal.\n";
}

// === checks for value and type equality
if ($a === $b) {
    echo "The values and types are equal.\n";
} else {
    echo "The values are equal, but types are not.\n";
}

In this example, $a == $b will return true because they have the same value (5), even though one is a string and the other is an integer. However, $a === $b will return false because they are not of the same type.

To type the === operator, you simply press the equal sign key three times. If you're seeing very long horizontal lines, it might be a styling choice in the video to make the operator more visible. In your own code, you should just use three equal signs without any extra spacing.

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