JSP - what's the difference between “<% … %>” VS “<%= … %>”

Question

While working with JSP files and servlets , I came across <% … %> and <%= … %> .

What's the difference between both cases ?

Thanks

you also have <!% ... %> in jsp, which are used for declaring your global variables — MaVRoSCy, Jul 14 '12 at 10:44
@MaVRoSCy I have seen `<%! &> but not <!% %> for method declaration. Am I able to reverse the order? — Mushy, Dec 09 '17 at 15:08

score 13 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 14 '12 at 08:16

13

<%= … %> will echo out a variable, where as <% … %> denotes a script or some code that is executed.

Here are the links to the jsp documentation:

Expression (<%= … %>) : http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/tags/11/syntaxref11.fm4.html
Scriptlet (<% … %>) : http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/tags/11/syntaxref11.fm5.html

edited Jul 14 '12 at 08:16

poussma

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answered Jul 14 '12 at 07:23

Cristian

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score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 14 '12 at 19:21

11

<%= new java.util.Date() %>

is same as

<% out.println(new java.util.Date()) %>

There are three types of Scriptlets :

Scriptlet Expressions of the form <%= expression %> that are evaluated and inserted into the output
Scriptlet of the form <% code %> that are inserted into the servlet's service method
Scriptlet Declarations of the form <%! code %> that are inserted into the body of the servlet class, outside of any existing methods. For ex:
```
<%!

public int sum(int a, int b) {

return a + b;
}

%>
```

answered Jul 14 '12 at 19:21

Ramesh PVK

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1

what is the difference between `out.print()` and `out.println()`? – Kasun Siyambalapitiya Aug 18 '16 at 12:58
1

@KasunSiyambalapitiya `out.print()` doesn't insert a new line escape sequence. `out.println()` does. – Mushy Dec 09 '17 at 15:11

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 14 '12 at 07:24

7

In case of <% ... %> you are adding a server side code. And in case of <%= ... %> you are adding a server side code that automatically prints something. It could be seen as a shortcut for <% out.print( something ) %>.

answered Jul 14 '12 at 07:24

Francisco Spaeth

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JSP - what's the difference between “<% … %>” VS “<%= … %>”

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