note 108596 deleted from control-structures.alternative-syntax by danbrown

Note Submitter: G. Stewart ---- In response to temec987 at gmail dot com, your tip doesn't work with echo because echo is not a function. It doesn't return a value. print *is* a function that always returns (int)1. In effect, you're taking advantage of a shortcut in the evaluation of a boolean expression. When evaluating: expression1 && expression2 (or expression1 AND expression2, it's the same thing) if expression1 is FALSE then the result is necessarily FALSE since both expression1 and expression2 have to be TRUE for the whole to be TRUE. Only if expression1 is TRUE (ie. if $value is set and not NULL) is there any point in evaluating expression2 (the print()). echo not being a function, it cannot be evaluated a such.