heredoc syntax .. xquery string causes error

[d_l]

I am trying to use heredoc to introduce XQuery strings (then to apply urlencode before submitting querystring as a SOAP parameter)

Following the rules here ..

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.syntax.heredoc

I can get simple strings to go into heredoc ..
but more complex strings get chewed ..

here is an example ..... syntax error, unexpected '/', expecting '}'

what rule have I missed in reading the heredoc manual?

<?php

// test snippet follows .. generates this error message ..
// [COLOR=Red]"Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '/', expecting '}' in .. <file>.. on line 11"[/COLOR]

$query =<<<END
<toc>{	
    for $act in doc("/db/shakespeare/plays/macbeth.xml")/PLAY/ACT
    return
        <act>
            [COLOR=Red]{$act/TITLE}[/COLOR]
            {
                for $scene in $act/SCENE return
                    <scene>
                        {$scene/TITLE}
                        <actors>
                        {
                            for $speaker in distinct-values($scene//SPEAKER)
                            order by $speaker return
                                <actor>{$speaker}</actor>
                        }
                        </actors>
                    </scene>
            }
        </act>
}
</toc>
END;

$param = urlencode($query); // query	- string representing XPath query

echo ($param);

?>

[hitman6003]

Should this:

for $speaker in distinct-values($scene//SPEAKER)

have two slashes between $scene and SPEAKER?
I'm not entirely familiar with xpath, but since this is being run in php, I would think that after the // it would think it's being commented.

[d_l]

My understanding was that heredoc was oblivious to the content?

Perhaps I should use concatenated strings?

Tried amending that line .. but still seeing an error

The Xquery syntax was taken from some of the examples here

http://demo.exist-db.org/exist/xquery/xquery.xq

using PHP5 as SOAPclient to access eXist native XML DB.

This example which follows works fine in heredoc.

<?php

$query =<<<END
for $speech in //SPEECH[SPEAKER &= 'witch' and near(., 'fenny snake')]
return $speech
END;

$param = urlencode($query); // query	- string representing XPath query

echo ($query);
echo ("<br>");
echo ($param);

?>

[rikmoncur]

heredoc isn't oblivious to the content - it'll still allow the processing of variables.
I use it quite a bit (lazy!)

[d_l]

"not oblivious" ..

thanks for clarifying that ..

so is there any operator that is better for holding query strings?

what about sprintf() ?

[Weedpacket]

The problem is on line 11:
{$act/title}

PHP does variable interpolation in heredoc strings. When variable names get complicated (like $foo->bar['baz'][$wibble]) it is necessary to delimint which bits of the string are part of the variable and which are just nearby. The syntax for doing this is to wrap the variable in {}.

So on line 11 you've got {$act, PHP recognises this as indicating that here be a variable that starts with "$act". But instead of continuing with the name of a variable, or the end of the variable, indicated by }, it sees a / and it goes WTF?

Do you want the interpolation (I'm guessing not) and keep the {.../TITLE} bit? If yes, then you'll need to delimit the variable so that PHP can tell which bits are variable and which aren't; i.e., {{$act}/TITLE}. If no, you'll need to escape the $ so that it doesn't get flagged as being part of a variable at all; i.e., {\$act/TITLE}.

Or if you can live with escaping any single quotes that appear in your strings, you could write

$query ='<toc>{	
    for $act in doc("/db/shakespeare/plays/macbeth.xml")/PLAY/ACT
    return
        <act>
            {$act/TITLE}
            {
                for $scene in $act/SCENE return
                    <scene>
                        {$scene/TITLE}
                        <actors>
                        {
                            for $speaker in distinct-values($scene//SPEAKER)
                            order by $speaker return
                                <actor>{$speaker}</actor>
                        }
                        </actors>
                    </scene>
            }
        </act>
}
</toc>';

[d_l]

Thanks for that full explanation of syntax rules ..

I think I can live with just escaping single quotes inside the query string ..

your example works nicely .. avoiding use of heredoc.