Heredocs Problem

matty_x

Hi Guys,

Using Heredocs, I am getting a parse error. Here is the error:
Parse error: parse error, expecting `']'' in /someURL/exercise2.php on line 73

The error is referring to the second $_SESSION[] entry in the HTML from the following PHP code.

Here is the code:

<?php

include '../../../functions.inc.php';

$auth = authenticate();//run the authenticate script from functions.inc.php

if ($auth !='true') {
header("Location: [url]http://myclass.missouri.edu/~mms42b/new/login/login.html[/url]"); // Redirect browser */
exit;
}

// Name session and add responses to session

$_SESSION['module'] = "Selenium";

//define variables passed by POST and add them to the session

foreach ($HTTP_POST_VARS as $k=>$v){
  if ($k != "submit") {
  $_SESSION[$k] = $v;
  }
}

//ensure that the form was completely filled out
while (list($k, $v) = each($_SESSION)) {
     if ($v != "") {
     $allow = "true";
     } else {
     $allow = "false";
     }
}

if ($allow = "true") {

//build the HTML page
print <<< HTML
<html>
<head>
<title>exercise2</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</head>

<body background="../../images/background.jpg">

<!--begin main table-->

<table width="95%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="sitestyle">
  <tr> 

  <td width="65%" bgcolor="#000000"><a href="../../index.html"><img src="../../images/logo.gif" name="logo" width="595" height="68" border="0" id="logo"></a></td>
    <td width="35%" bgcolor="#000000">&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr> 
    <td colspan="2"><div align="center"> 
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
      <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="4"><span class="sitestyle">Application 
        of Nuclear Methodologies to Identify the Source of Obsidian Artifacts</span></font></strong><br>
        </font></p>

<!--begin subtable-->
<table align="center" width=75% border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<tr> 
<td bordercolor="#000000" bgcolor="#999999"> <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Results 
              Page </strong></font></p></td>
</tr>
          <td bordercolor="#000000" bgcolor=#E6E6E6> 
            <p><font face="arial" size=2>You chose <b>$_SESSION[1]]>
              as your method of choice for conducting elemental analysis on your 
              obsidian samples.<br>
              <br>
              Your reasoning for choosing this method is as follows:<br>
              <br>
              <em>$_SESSION[1a]</em><br>

          <!--etc. etc. etc.-->

        <p align="center"><font size="2" face="arial"><a href="exercise3.php">Continue</a></font></p>
</td>
</table>
</table>
</body>
</html>
HTML;

 } else {
 echo "<h1>Error</h1><p>You must fill out <b>all</b> fields. Please use your browser's \"back\" button and complete all fields.</p>";
} //end if statement

?>

Why am I getting this parse error? When I laboriously assign variables to each SESSION key and value (ex.,

$answer1a=$_SESSION[1a];

and code the variables into the HTML instead of the $_SESSION the problem goes away. The problem persists, however, if I use $_POST[] values. I assume it's a heredoc problem. Is anyone aware of heredoc problems with the characters "[" and "]"? Can you guys please point me in the right direction?

Thank you for your help!

matty-x 😃

dalecosp

From the manual:

Heredoc text behaves just like a double-quoted string, without the double-quotes. This means that you do not need to escape quotes in your here docs, but you can still use the escape codes listed above. Variables are expanded, but the same care must be taken when expressing complex variables inside a here doc as with strings.

If I were you, I'd put those complex variables in complex syntax:

{$_SESSION['foo']}

🙂

matty_x

All right! Utilization of the complex syntax rules outlined in the user manual took care of the parse error I kept getting. Rather silly mistake on my behalf, really.

Now I am wondering how to execute a function in a heredoc. I have no idea how to do this /within/ the heredoc. The only thing I've come up with is to end the heredoc, execute the function, and then continue the heredoc (does that make sense?). In other words 😉

print <<< DOCONE
bla bla bla bla bla
DOCONE;

$somevar = implode($somearray);

print <<< DOCTWO
blablablabla $somevar
DOCTWO;

This is clunky and very unelegant. There has to be a way to work a function /into/ the heredoc. Any ideas?

Thanks folks,

Matty-X

dalecosp

Why? Would you place a function inside a string variable?

That's essentially what a HEREDOC is, in my {limited} understanding. Maybe I need to spend more time in the manual. Heh, really, don't we all? Anyway:

<?php

// you can't do this, for example:

echo "Your statement balance is number_format($bal, 2) dollars.";

// you must instead do this:

echo "Your statement balance is ". number_format($bal, 2)." dollars.";

This is fairly well analogous to your question. I'm curious why you expect to be able to do this, and why do you consider it "klunky and unelegant"?

Ah, well, off to the manual ... 😉