Speed

I am fairly new to PHP and am right now writing my first complicated script. There is a lot of HTML in the page and I was wondering which method is faster. To always be inside the <?php ?> tags or to stop and start. Here is a quick example (not necessarily a good one) <?php

    $sql2 = "select ABBREV from STATES";
    $result2 = OCIParse($conn,$sql2);
    OCIExecute($result2) or die("It's not possible to query");

?>

    <select name=STATE >

<?php

    while (OCIfetch($result2,1)) {

?>

        <option><?php echo OCIresult($result2,1)?>

<?php } ?> </SELECT> OR <?php

    $sql2 = "select ABBREV from STATES";
    $result2 = OCIParse($conn,$sql2);
    OCIExecute($result2) or die("It's not possible to query");
    echo "<select name=STATE >";
    while (OCIfetch($result2,1)) {
        echo "<option>";
        echo OCIresult($result2,1)
    }
    echo "</SELECT>";

?> Also which is faster print or echo. Thanks *---------*-----------*----------*---------*---------*---------*--------* Jerry Nelson Systems Analyst Datanamics, Inc. 973-C Russell Ave Gaithersburg, MD 20879 TEL: 301-948-3515