Syntax problem driving me mad !

[coxy]

Hi all,

I am converting some mysql to xml with php but the following line seems to be giving me problems:

$_xml ="<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>rn";

this is taken from my script:

<?

$db_name = "Dynamic"; //This is your database Name
$link = mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "") or die("Could not connect to server!");
//This is your table name. This is a one table config to do more table you will need to rework the code.
$table_name = 'Dynamic';

$select_db = mysql_select_db($db_name, $link); // mysql_select_db -- Select a MySQL database
$query = "SELECT * FROM " . $table_name;
$result = mysql_query($query, $link) or die("Could not complete database query");
$num = mysql_num_rows($result); //mysql_num_rows -- Get number of rows in result

$saveloc = "/var/www/html/PICDynamic/test.xml";

if ($num != 0) {

$file= fopen($saveloc, "w"); //fopen -- Opens file or URL

$_xml ="<results>rn";

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
// This while loop loops throught the data found from the above query and
// generates the XML Doc.
//
//
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { //mysql_fetch_array -- Fetch a result row as an associative array, a numeric array, or both.
$xml .=" <item>rn";
$xml .=" <newstitle>" . $row[Ntitle] . "</newstitle>rn";
$xml .=" <date>" . $row[Ndate] . "</date>rn";
$xml .=" <article>" . $row[Narticle] . "</article>rn";
$xml .=" <flag>" . $row[flag] . "</flag>rn";
$xml .=" <link>" . $row[Nlink] . "</link>rn";

$_xml .=" </item>rn";
}

$_xml .="</results>";

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
// If you would like to save a copy of the XML Doc being created uncomment this
// line and the two lines at the bottom containing fwrite and fclose.
//
//
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
fwrite($file, $_xml); //fwrite -- Binary-safe file write
fclose($file); //fclose -- Closes an open file pointer

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
// This will echo the XML file out to the screen so you can view it.
//
//
//
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
echo $_xml;

} else {
echo "No Records found";
}

?>

I think its the ?> thats causing the problems but any help would be much appreciated !

Thanks in adv

Greg

[mourisj]

You try to enclose " inside other " ! This does not work, as the second " ends the first one.
This means, your string ends here:

$_xml ="<?xml version="

After this, a ; or something is expected, so you have a syntax error.

You can use single quotes within double quotes, or vice versa. Or you can try to escape them (I use this sometimes to echo URLs in PHP:

echo "Some \"quoted text\" to be echoed";

(Additionnally, your ?> might be interpreted as the end of your PHP section, but I'm not quite sure about this one, if it's inside a quoted string).

Hope this helps.

JJ Mouris

[coxy]

yes its the closing "?>" inside that is causing the problem. Even though it is inside the quote string. Any ideas on how to get around this ?

Thanks again

[mourisj]

From the PHP manual:

" There are four sets of tags which can be used to denote blocks of PHP code. Of these, only two (<?php. . .?> and <script language="php">. . .</script>) are always available; the others can be turned on or off from the php.ini configuration file. While the short-form tags and ASP-style tags may be convenient, they are not as portable as the longer versions. Also, if you intend to embed PHP code in XML or XHTML, you will need to use the <?php. . .?> form to conform to the XML."

Don't know if this gets you further.

Also, I recommend to thoroughly read the chapter "Datatypes / Strings" in the PHP manual. There is a lot of information about quoting and escaping strings.

JJ Mouris