Syntax Nightmare

phplearner

I've spent two hours now trying umpteen combinations of \", \' and anything I could think of involving the two 'hidden' field lines with no luck...always Errors.

This code is part of a 'while' process loop with other stuff:

echo "<TD width=\"30\" align=\"center\">"; 
echo "<input name=\"taxoption[]\" type=\"checkbox\" value=\"1\">";  

echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mtax[]\" value=$row['taxrate']>";  

echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mcity[]\" value=$row['cityname']>";   

echo "</TD>";

Thanks for any help.

HalfaBee

I normally use single quotes for html.

echo "<TD width=\"30\" align='center'>"; 
echo "<input name='taxoption[]' type='checkbox' value='1'>";  

echo "<input type='hidden' name='mtax[]' value='${row['taxrate']}'>";

You may also need curly braces around the arrays. ( complex variable stuff, sometimes works sometimes doesn't )

HalfaBee

phplearner

Thank you, HalfaBee, but you were also right:

( complex variable stuff, sometimes works sometimes doesn't )

In my case, unfortunately, it is "sometimes doesn't (work).

I appreciate your efforts anyway.

Oh gosh...now what to do?

HalfaBee

You can echo it like this

echo "<input type='hidden' name='mtax[]' value='".$row['taxrate']."'>";

Check that $row contains what you expect.
print_r( $row );

Look a your HTML source and it may show the problem.

HalfaBee

mcgruff

It's probably better not to output html from php scripts but rather just define a bunch of vars and then echo them in an included html template - or use a template engine lik smarty.

That instantly removes the syntax issues in your post, although it's still something you need to learn.

I'd recommend that you always concatenate vars and strings, like this:

$string = 'some text' . $var . 'more text';

.. rather than simply chucking the vars into a double quoted string. It's easier to read and less error-prone.

phplearner

(HalfaBee)...

Thanks for your continued efforts here.

Well, I the data is good 'cuz it displayed fine before trying to use the 'hidden' fields (required for further processing stuff).

(mcgruff)...

Are you saying I should put the 1st part of the 'hidden' field into a $string, etc. first???

seby

its always important to use single quotes around arrays.. i see a lot of people doing something like:
$row[whatever] when it should be $row['whatever']

i also like to use curly braces around variable arrays when using html...

like:

echo "<a href=\"/file/path/index.php?id={$row['id']}\">click here</a>";

or:

echo "<a href=\"/file/path/index.php?id=".$row['id']."\">click here</a>";

phplearner

Hmmm...this is strange.

I decided to comment // out the 3 lines of code between the <TD> & </TD> and am now getting:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected $ (referencing the last line of the file which is: ?>

Any ideas why?

Thanks.

seby

which code are you using, HalfaBee's or you're original one?

mcgruff

Originally posted by phplearner
B...
(mcgruff)...

Are you saying I should put the 1st part of the 'hidden' field into a $string, etc. first??? [/B]

No - sorry if that was confusing. I don't usually echo out html directly from php scripts.

What I meant to do was give an example of concatenating strings and vars ('scuse if you already know how to do that).

Although you can just stick a dollar var inside a double quoted string, the code is more readable if you concatenate (it's easier to see where the vars and the constant strings are) and this also avoids rare problems when php misinterprets a var name as part of a string.

Weedpacket

Probably the cleanest (definitely the fastest) would be:

?>
<TD width="30" align="center">
<input name="taxoption[]" type="checkbox" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="mtax[]" value="<?php echo $row['taxrate']?>">
<input type="hidden" name="mcity[]" value="<?php echo $row['cityname']?>">
</TD>
<?php

phplearner

Hey Weedpacket...

Nice to see you again, but where is that pix with the colored propellor beanie??? 😃

I tried you code...thanks...got rid of the errors in the 'while' loop, but now I have:

  Parse error: parse error, unexpected $

Which is referring to the last line of the script which is the closing ?> tag.

What does this mean??? How can I get rid of the error?

Thanks much...to all.

Weedpacket

That's the old one that implies that you've got a { somewhere without its matching }. PHP gets to the end of the file and goes "dude, where's my }?"

It occasionally means something like a ) or " is missing; but in such situations you're much more likely to be getting errors a lot sooner and closer to the site of the actual fault. With } though, there's no real way to tell if one's missing until you do get to the end of the file.

phplearner

(Weedpacket):

AHHHhhhh SOOOooooo...

Thanks for the enlightenment.

Now, to find the culprit...but I'm getting pretty blurry-eyed going through this code a Bazillion times (slight exaggeration).

But have a question:

Since the following breaks out of the php 'while' loop I have going, could the fact that the last curly brace is broken up by straight HTML in between cause a problem?

 ?> 
<TD width="30" align="center"> 
<input name="taxoption[]" type="checkbox" value="1"> 
<input type="hidden" name="mtax[]" value="<?php echo $row['taxrate']?>"> 
<input type="hidden" name="mcity[]" value="<?php echo $row['cityname']?>"> 
</TD> 
<?php

Thanks.

phplearner

ARRRGGHHH...

I had a { instead of a } :mad:

But now I have some other errors from another forum.

phplearner

Major bummer. The code doesn't appear to work, or else in the final processing the [] array info is not working right...and only
writing the 1st checked record to the DB.