[RESOLVED] str_replace hell!

owaring

i am trying to write what should be a simple str_replace command.

//$sidebar contains  html code incl links
$new_sidebar = str_replace ('<a href="', '<a href="../', $sidebar);

but this results in the following error

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in

i have tried this with str_replace, stri_replace, ereg_replace & ereg_replace
concerend that the double quotes could be causing problems i also tried some code straight from the manual;

// Provides: Hll Wrld f PHP
$vowels = array("a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "A", "E", "I", "O", "U");
$onlyconsonants = str_replace($vowels, "", "Hello World of PHP");

i have even isolated this code to its own file now
but still the same error

any ideas out there, or previous experience with this issue?

advance thanks

Ollie.

laserlight

You forgot the terminating semi-colon.

owaring

grrrrr here i did yes!! but not in my actual code! oops ^EDIT

laserlight

So far your code looks okay. Post the smallest and simplest code that demonstrates the error.

owaring

<?php
$var = str_replace("fghj", "qwert", "asdfghjkl");
?>

this error is

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING

laserlight

I am afraid I cannot duplicate your error, and your code looks correct.

Does a basic hello world program work?

<?php
echo 'Hello world!';
?>

EDIT:
Another thing: Remember to copy and paste your code. When I pointed out that you forgot the terminating semi-colon, you claimed that it was in your actual code. If you can make a typo error when typing to post, you can make a typo error in your actual code. If you do not copy and paste, you could find that the errors that people help you to fix are different from those in your actual code... and this can go on forever as you write and rewrite your code in response to what people suggest as fixes.

owaring

yes everything else works as expected, in-fact the script that this problem lies in is fairly sized and this is the only error throughout.

i have just tried it on a remote server incase it was problem with my setup but the problem persists.

thanks for the heads up on copy/paste

laserlight

i have just tried it on a remote server incase it was problem with my setup but the problem persists.

As in you tried this script:

<?php
$var = str_replace("fghj", "qwert", "asdfghjkl");
?>

on another server and had the same error? Note that your test script should be just that. Nothing else, not even some text elsewhere, HTML boilerplate code, etc.

rsmith

I'm guess the problem is with a line above the code?

owaring

<?php
$var = str_replace("fghj", "qwert", "asdfghjkl");
?>

a file containing this and only this can be seen on the web at http://www.urban-audio.co.uk/replace.php

rsmith

You need to post the entire script so we can better help. Giving us examples isn't going to work. That script, as posted above my reply here, works fine on my server.

owaring

i think we've established that the syntax is fine,
i need to know why this function does not work on my server.
i have posted it in its simplest form to prove that it is this function causing the errors.

laserlight

i think we've established that the syntax is fine,
i need to know why this function does not work on my server.
i have posted it in its simplest form to prove that it is this function causing the errors.

Yes, that is very strange. I would expect it to work on both PHP 4.0.6 (the first version of PHP that I used) and PHP 5.2.5. My own test was with PHP 5.2.3, and it worked.

What is the name and version of your webserver and which version of PHP are you using? Do any of the PHP library functions work for you?

rsmith

I didn't ask for the simplest form. I've already proven the function works when properly written. I asked for your exact code.

Weedpacket

rsmith wrote:
I didn't ask for the simplest form. I've already proven the function works when properly written. I asked for your exact code.

But

owaring wrote:
a file containing this and only this can be seen on the web at http://www.urban-audio.co.uk/replace.php

So that is the exact code. This is why laserlight has been recommending "the smallest and simplest code that demonstrates the error.". Gets rid of irrelevancies.

It is very weird. I've considered character set problems (no, that wouldn't do it); the multibyte functions don't override str_replace; and besides, there's none of that going on here unless there is some auto-prepended file that's adding code to the page.

owaring, I can think of one very slim possibility, but I'll need to look at the file itself - the one being run when that URL is hit - and it is very slim so no promises. Would you be able to attach the file to your reply, please?

NogDog

It sort of seems like the parser is not seeing the opening parenthesis for the function parameters. Any possibility you're saving the file in other than plain ASCII text?

owaring

What is the name and version of your webserver and which version of PHP are you using? Do any of the PHP library functions work for you?

locally i'm Apache 2.2.6 with PHP 5.2.4
remote is Apache 2.2.3 with PHP 4.4.8
library functions do work.

atached is a copy of what can be viewed at http://www.urban-audio.co.uk/replace.php

Weedpacket

Hah! And I get the same parse error! I've got you now!

Gotcha!

None of your spaces are actually space characters. You've been using non-breaking spaces (character 160) and they've been getting UTF-8 encoded as the sequence chr(194).chr(160) - which is not a space.

See the attached screenshot of how it looks in my text editor.

owaring

BINGO!

So change some prefs in editor and boom i can see the non-breaks

this was probably caused by copy pasting from the manual!!

Thanks to everyone.

Weedpacket

Weedpacket's Law:
Cut-and-paste code never works.

😃