PHP : Better way to print html in if-else conditions

Question

Please refer the following two forms of the same code

First:

<?php if(some_condition){
?>
    <li><a target="_blank" href="example.com/channel1/"  class="xyz">If content</a></li>
<?php
}else{
?>
    <li><a target="_blank" href="example.com/channel2/"  class="xyz">Else Content</a></li>

<?php?>
}?>

Second :

<?php 
    if(some_condition){
       echo '<li><a target="_blank" href="example.com/channel1/"  class="xyz">If content</a></li>';
    }
    else{
        echo '<li><a target="_blank" href="example.com/channel2/"  class="xyz">Else Content</a></li>';
    }
 ?>

My question is which one of the following is a better option.I know the second one is more readable. But if there are so many conditions on the same page, then which is better performance-wise(i believe, there will be only a negligible performance difference between the two).

I would like to know your views/points, regarding standards performance and whatever you think I should know, about the two different forms.

(And which should be preferred over the other,when there is only single if-else block, and multiple if-else blocks)

Thanks

Answer 1

I would argue that the first example is the better of the two evils as it is more maintainable. The HTML is written as is, and not coded as a string literal.

Using templating or some other way to keep business logic and HTML presentation separate usually results in more maintainable code.

Answer 2

As always, the short and probably most correct answer: It depends.

To expand:

For the two snippets in that short as shown in the question it's purely about taste. There is no strong technical reason for one over the other. In a larger context the question is "are those rather HTML templates with a little logic in between or are those code parts with lot's of logic and a little of HTML?"

Of course if it's mostly logic, a good idea is to look into template library's like Twig or others and separate the logic from output in a larger degree, whcih allows testing and changing output formats more easily.