Using PHP Gettext Extension vs PHP Arrays in Multilingual Websites?

Question

So far the only 2 good things that I\'ve seen about using gettext instead of arrays is that I don\'t have to create the \"greeting\" \"sub-array\" (or whatever its called).

Answer 1

The most obvious pro for using gettext() is of course that the source string is positioned where it belongs. I.e. it makes much more sense to write this

echo _("This is a string");

than

echo $lang['a_string'];

Not to mention that you have to craft a new variable placeholder for every possible translation. With gettext() the translation string itself acts as the index.