syntax question

[eluser]jedd[/eluser]
[quote author="babyboss" date="1245250899"]what is the difference between
$variable .= form_input('name', '');
[/quote]

Since we're all having a go .. the operator-in-front-of-the-equals-sign works with many of the arithmetic operators too (+ / - are more often used).

These two code bites do the same thing:

Code:

$variable = "bob";
$variable .= form_input('name', '');

Code:

$variable = "bob";
$variable = $variable  .  form_input('name', '');

I'm pretty sure they talk about this in the [url="http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.string.php"]PHP manual[/url] somewhere ...