Pass a PHP variable into JavaScript

Say you need a variable from your PHP code to be used in your JavaScript. A really quick way to do this is to do something like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
var dbElements = "<? echo $dbTotal?>";
</script>

$dbTotal is my PHP variable that is holding the total number of rows in a DataBase. dbElements now contains this value and can be used in my javascript for looping purposes!