what would make this if decision carry out what's in the braces?
<p>I have tried everything to try understand what the <code>if</code> part of this statement truly accomplishes. It appears that no value that can be assigned to $_var will actually make the <code>if</code> statement carryout what's inside the braces. Can someone help me to understand why someone would use this <code>if</code> syntax in production code? </p>

<pre><code>&lt;?php
$_var=true;
if(!$_var =func() ) {echo 'returning false';//never prints!?

                }

echo $_var;
function func(){ echo 'test';return 3;}     
?&gt;
</code></pre>
