help me understand line of code

[Mutikasa]

What does this code do?

$changedDir='';
if (!$changedDir)$changedDir = preg_replace('|wp-content.*$|','',__FILE__);

why if (!$ChangedDir)$changedDir? what kind a expression is that?

 

[soft2050]

The first line and the if statement is useless there. $changedDir is empty and if statement would always turn to true since $changedDir is empty.

$changedDir = preg_replace('|wp-content.*$|','',__FILE__);

The above statement seems like its trying to get the root path / Wordpress directory where wp-contents folder is located (incase this is stored in a theme file or plugin). Its removing everything after and including wp-content in __FILE__ (which gives the current file path)

 

[Mutikasa]

The first line and the if statement is useless there. $changedDir is empty and if statement would always turn to true since $changedDir is empty.

Is it same as

$changedDir=''; 
if (!$changedDir)
{
$changedDir = preg_replace('|wp-content.*$|','',__FILE__);
}

I'm confused why there isn't empty space between if (!$ChangedDir)$changedDir?
It doesn't have to be?

I thought it was some kind of casting like in c#

 

[_R_V_T_™]

Is it same as

$changedDir=''; 
if (!$changedDir)
{
$changedDir = preg_replace('|wp-content.*$|','',__FILE__);
}

yes it's the same

 

[soft2050]

Is it same as

$changedDir=''; 
if (!$changedDir)
{
$changedDir = preg_replace('|wp-content.*$|','',__FILE__);
}

I'm confused why there isn't empty space between if (!$ChangedDir)$changedDir?
It doesn't have to be?

I thought it was some kind of casting like in c#

PHP is whitespace insensitive, so there could be space or not even. Even in C#, that kind of statement would compile fine. Casting couldn't be done to variable names, you need to specify the type to cast to in that case