Question: ```
    <html>
    <head></head>
           <body>
                 <h1>Welcome to Our Website!</h1>
                 <hr/>
                 <h2>News</h2>
                 <h4><?=$data['title'];?></h4>
                 <p><?=$data['content'];?></p>
           </body>
    </html>

```

Can anyone tell me what's the "=" sign before variable names ? I thought of some echo alias but I couldn't find anything, thanks for your help

Answer: 
`<?=$a?>` is the shortcut for `<? echo $a ?>`, they are called "short tags" in PHP terminology

Check PHP documentation [Escaping from HTML](http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.phpmode.php) example #2 3rd item, and related ini setting [short-open-tag](http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.short-open-tag)
This tag is interpreted as `<?php echo`.

You can check it by writing `<?= ?>`, you'll receive error.