WRT Stephen's note:
My example of concatenation and array methods of string building does not include the interstitial logic, which is expected to include conditionals.
Concatenation method:
$str="This is my list";
if($list=="o") $str.="<ol>";
else $str.="<ul>";
foreach($item as $i) $str.="<li>$i</li>";
if($list=="o") $str.="</ol>";
else $str.="</ul>";
Array method:
$str=array("This is my list");
if($list=="o") $str[]="<ol>";
else $str[]="<ul>";
foreach($item as $i) $str[]="<li>$i</li>";
if($list=="o") $str[]="</ol>";
else $str[]="</ul>";
$str=implode("",$str);
You can't do either of these with a single double-quoted string. However, if what you are doing CAN be done in a single double-quoted string, Stephen is completely correct in observing that you should do that instead of concatenating.